Bugging out/SHTF

When SHTF will you be preppared to face the challenges that come. theres over 3million preppares in the United states. What you read ahead in the following chapters may save your life or just help you better understand things.
. CHAPTER 1
. In this chapter we will go over what SHTF means and a few things you can do to better preppare yourself for it.
. So SHTF means shit hit the fan. It means all hell has broke loose and society is not what it once was. What will you do when you have a family and you need food and water and go to the store and there is nothing on the shelves.

. Will you be able to put food on the table for your family. FEMA recomends that we have at least 3 days worth of food and water in our homes for an emergency. But what are you gonna do if it last a week or a month or forever will you have food and water for your family, Do you have food put away or water saved up. do you know how to hunt, gather resources your family needs to stay alive. theres so many things you have to ask yourself. When hell brakes loose its you against the world. You have to know how to hunt how to preppare food and how to find water and scavenge.

. If you do not know how to do any of these things you wont be able to survive. so every time you go to the store buy an extra can of food or box of food something you can store. And it will stay good for a long time. even if every week you can only buy 1 or 2 canned goods and a gallon of water over time that little bit becomes something big. Your wife or husband maybe even your friends may think your crazy but if something happens you will be glad you have that food put away.

. Another thing good to learn is how to make a garden and how to maintain crops or how to can food. making a garden cost almost nothing but time. If you make a garden and dont eat alotta the food you get from it you can can it and it will stay good for years. Now you may be thinking is SHTF only mean ill need food and water? No you need to be ready for anything honestly. You need alot more than that. Alot of new preppers can get overwhelmed at the thought of prepping because there is so much stuff involved in it. I will break it down into smaller catagorys for you guys to understand what you should start with and to end with.

. Ok so you saw something on the news that made you realize how downhill things are going with the world today and you are concered for you and your family. so you say im gonna start prepping. But you dont know were to start well heres were i believe you should start.

. So the first thing you should start out with is water you can only live three days without water so say you have 4 people in your family. the average person should have a gallon of water a day to survive and really 2 gallons for things like laundry brushing your teeth and stuff like that. but lets say the gallon of water a day. well you will need 4 gallons a day thats 12 gallons in three days and 120 gallons a month [if its a 30 day month]. you may think that is alot of money but get 55 gallon drums [plastic]. Ketch rain water or even fill them with tap water. theres alot of different things you can get to put in the water to keep it from going bad. 55 gallon drums only cost around 12 per one say you buy 2 24$ you now have 110 gallons of water right there. everytime it rains go take the drums and put them outside to ketch the water. also find in your area were there is a pond or lake somewere away from the town/city [pollusion reasons].

. If you know were a lake is you have almost infinite water right there. Never no matter what take a bath in it. Sure you will be purifying it but your body may pollute the water but a black 55 gallon drum and make a shower from it. the black on it will heat the water up. these are just some of the ways you can start with water preps for your family. And in the future you may be able to save and get better means of water like a well.

. Now we will look at food you can live 3 weeks without food but is something to keep everyone happy and smiling. Now for theres a few different things you can do to get food [it also depeneds on were you live]. if you live in a city you have very limited space you can have a mini garden and also buy food from stores. But the ideal place for people to live is in the middle of nowere. Because living no were near other people means you can have a big garden and can have farm animals such as chickens,cows,pigs,ducks,etc the list goes on forever honestly. i personally think cowns and chickens are the best to have. Only because if you kill one cow it will give you a good month to 2 months worth of food and the chickens id keep for eggs. eggs are good sources for protein and so is the meat from the cows. also living in a country area you can have a well installed.

. Now if you have food and water Next you will want something to protect yourself and family with. I think a good 12 gauge is good for close range and a handgun. but for medium to long range you will want a rifle of some sort. Now ill be the first to say AR-15 are fun to have but will jam and mess up at the worst times. A good bolt action rifle is the best thing to have i think.you can use it for hunting self defence. with the guns come gun safety you need to teach everyone in your family how to properly shoot and handle a firearm. after that comes ammo storage i think you should have atleast a thousand rounds of ammo for each gun.

. But id prefer ten thousand rounds. After guns and ammo you need a cleaning kit. Get 2 or 3 universale gun cleaning kits that will clean all guns [you never know when you will be out scavenging and find a gun].

. After a gun you can start thinking of things like knowledge. You may think you know how to make a primitive shelter or make a fire. But when the time comes and you get out there and you dont know none of that then what your screwed. there are a few good books out there i would recomened you pick up. the first one is Bushcraft 101 by: dave canterbury and the second is SAS survival guide. And this one of course. Having that knowledge of what to do when you need to is important. so go out on the weekends and practise making and maintaining a fire or building a shelter from trees and mud and leaves. You will find that the more you do it the better you will become at it.

. now we have misc stuff. I would recomend buying flashlights [some battery operated and hand crank] and extra batterys for them. You should buy hand crank radios also. With the handcrank radio you can hear what is going on around you in the world. But after so long you the radios wont work noone will be there saying anything. Next having small propaine tanks for cooking or heating would be nice.

. So those are only some of the things you can do to start prepping to better yours and your familys future.

. CHAPTER 2

. In chapter 2 we will look at Bug out bags. And some stuff you should keep in them

. So with bug out bags each person in your family should have one. You need to build them around your needs. When i built mine i was thinking what do i need/want. Never buy your pack first cause you will end up filling it up and needing more space. Buy the stuff you need first then buy the pack that fits your needs [also never completly fill your bag you want room in it incase you find things you need while your scavenging with it].

So when starting out think what do you need to survie. I know i need -shelter. ok so i whent out and looked at tarps and tents if you get a tarp know that in the summer when all the bugs are out youll get eatin up by them. But in the winter they will be good to use. hammocks are nice in the summer with a bug net. but in the winter you will loose alotta heat from the bottom. Now tents are a little bit different they can be used during all seasons if you get a 4 season one. They however are not cheap they will cost a bit of money. But are worth it after you get a tent look into a sleeping bag get a good sleeping bag down to the lowest tempetures it gets to in your area. after a tent look into a wool blanket. They will help keep you warm or you can lay on them for padding.

. After shelter you want -Fire. Fire is a very special thing to have in the wild. I knew it could do so many things for me out in the bush. So i whent out and looked for all kinds of fire starters and put them in my carrige i musta had over 60 things. And i found a bench that i could sit on and was like, Ok so i know fire is important so looking at these items what do i think will be benificial to me in a bad situation. Well there was some zippo stuff i knew they had a bad reputation for failing on me when i needed them so put them back i looked at come livefire stuff and kept 2x Live Fires. I looked at wet fire and got a 10 pack of them. so i kept going threw things and saying would this be better than this or would it fail when i needed it. How simple was it to use. If my hands are freezing will i be able to use it.
. So i kept telling myself that and after ahwile i had a nice little fire kit. so when you go to cabelas or walmart just get all the fire stuff you can sit down and think about it for awhile.

. After fire we have tools- Well this is were alot of money you have in your kit will go [this is including fire arms]. a good tool kit will be a axe,belt knife,multitool,saw,and gun. Now with the axe you will have alot of choices, From schrade,cold steel, sa wetterlings,grandsfords bruks axes and many other companies make good axes. if you are on a budget i would recomend a schrade scaxe2 or scaxe2l if you want a good wood handled axe i would recomened the cold steel axe. The belt knife i cant even begin to tell you all the knife companys out there if i could recomend any tho it would, Schrade, Esee, Tops, Becker, theres so many custom knife makers out there. you can also get custom sheath makers. For kydex i would recommened yellow hawk customs. And for leather justin wolfe. They are two amzing hard working guys. They work hard at what they do and put alot of time in it also. There prices are good to [IMO]. They dont charge alot for how nice the work is. Now we have multitools, Im just gonna say it now dont waste your money on other multitools just go with a leatherman and you will love it and not regret it. You can also get justin wolfe. and dough from yellow hawk custom kydex. To make you custom sheaths for your multitool.

. Now we will take a look at saws, A saw is a very important tool to have in the woods. It will make very fine cuts that you will most likely need in shelter building. The saw can also cut wood you can use in fire, or defences. If you have to bug out and you make a camp you may want the walls to be flat and even, The saw will cut as many pieces of wood you need. A good saw to get is a baco laplander or a silky saw, they have been tested thousands of times and almost never fail. Next is guns this is a very big subject to talk about. The gun you get depeneds on what you need it for. Alot of people love automatics and think they are the beez knees, But you will find that they prove unreliable when you need them the most. They also will jam if not properly cleaned weekly. I think the best prepper gun is a handgun, pump shotgun, and bolt action rifle. For a handgun a 9mm will work for almost anyone, I think you will be able to find ammo for them the easyest also, A 12ga pump shotgun will deliver the best range and damage for self defence and hunting, Also alot of people own them so ammo will be easyest to find for them,

. Now for a Rifle I personally believe a bolt action .308 is the best for range and damage. You can take people out and even animals out at extremely long range and even medium range. the ammo is 50/50 to find. But you can find it before shtf, So just go out and buy 2 boxes a week over time it will add up.

. So we have now talked about Food, Water, Shelter, Fire, And Tools. That is a good base layer to start out with. From there i would recommened Medical kits, Trapping kits, Fishing kits, and hygene kits, And then a pack. We will talk now alittle about those 4 things.

. Medical kits- They are important because the smallest of cuts if not taken care of will get infected and could ultimatly kill you. If you only have alittle bit of money you should have at least, Bandaids, Gauze pads, Antibiotic ointment, some Antidiarial medicine, Asprin, Ibruprofen, Allergy medicine, Medical tape, And Quick clot.

. Fishing kits- For a fishing kit you wont be ketching big fishes so you can get buy with, Some hooks, Fishing line [50 pound, can use for snare making]. Bobbers, Sinkers, And a Fishing rod. It may not seem like alot but your only using it to ketch fish.

. Trapping kits- This is something you will ketch small game maybe some medium game with. The contents are, Big mouse traps, Snare wire, Some nails and rope [for securing your mouse traps so they dont get away], This kit is also not very big but can do alot in the way of securing food. You should also carry cheese or peanut butter to put on the traps so animals will go in them.

. Hygene kits, You dont want your teeth to rot or have to wipe with leaves do you?. If not you should atleast carry this, Dental flose, Toothbrushes [Always carry a backup]. Toothpaste, Toilet paper [Atleast two full roles a person], Hand sanitizer, Deodorant, And bosy spray.

. Now that we have of the more essential pieces of gear out of the way we now should look into packs. with packs you want quality and comfortability, When you choose your pack you dont want all the gear to fit in there tight you want more space incase you add in things to it later. Remeber your kit never stops growing and evolving, So get a bigger pack than what you actually think you need. I have a large alice pack and it still has room init to put things in as i go. There are so many different companys to buy from, You also have surplus. So go out and look you will find the right pack for you.

. Ok guys so i know i didnt say alotta gear in this but your pack should be built around your needs and wants i just gave you a basic list of things i personally think you should have. Like in my kit i have a ham radio, Sunglasses, a watch, Notepad and pens, Flashlights and spare batterys. And my tablet, Im working on getting a solar panel to keep it charged. But what i wanted to give you was the bare essentials you need to get buy. Well thanks guys this has been the next part of my book, there are more parts coming, have a good day everyone and stay adventurous!!