If any of us ever have to get the heck out, we have to carry a bare minimum of supplies and equipment.
We cant load down like a pack mule, if you need that much, then it should probably be in a "bug in" safe house or shelter. But you cant move quickly and efficiently carrying 100's of pounds of gear.
There are essentials you always need, and of other things should probably have enough for a few days of travel I'd think. But how many MRE's can you carry? Some of the stuff we carry will get burned up and used, "consumables".
So what do you consider essential gear, must haves at all times?
What consumables would you carry and how much?
I kinda feel the first few days to a week will be critical. Keep your head, think clearly and at least make educated decisions. So easy to carry foods and water. This period in my mind is no time to be dehydrated. It may take a few or several days to get clear of highly populated and city areas, but moving could be slow if infrastructer is a parking lot and youre avoiding main travel routes.
So what are we talking? MRE's, protien and energy bars? Thing with food is it requires water to digest so I wouldnt wanna over do it either, but carbs and protiens sure. Water is a must, I like hydration packs or easy to carry canteens like mil-surp collapsable canteens.
For the water, purification tablets would probably be necessary initially until a clean source is found, or until more can be purified by straining and boiling. There are hand held purifiers, but thats room that may have to give way to other more important essentials.
So whats essential?
Fire is one. There are threads already detailing what products people rely on, but almost all of these things get consumed in time. Though there is also the recipe for the homemade fire starters which with some good finds along the way can be reproduced. But again, initially, everyone should probably have some redundancy in their fire starting plan with an ability to start fire in any condition.
First aid? At least some basic stuff but probably some emergency stuff to like trauma bandages, maybe even sutures, hemostats, and needles. Which reminds me, I think some minor pain meds too. Antibiotics will probably be scarce in a short period of time, so pack some. Antibiotics, alcohol swabs, bandages...
Clothes, just a few changes and enough socks to rotate through and enough to deal with changing weather.
I'm gonna go ahead and say firearms and ammo. Some here have vast collections, or at least enough that not every firearm can be carried. But I feel there should be a firearm for every able body and pair of hands, plus a back up or two. If you dont have ammo and cant get ammo, I wouldnt carry it. I would however carry as much ammo as possible for each firearm.
Heres a thought on firearms and ammo. We have several firearms which use the same ammunition which kinda simplifies things. It may also come down to a cost/benefit analysis of weight and space taken vs. what else can the space be used for. But I wanna be able to defend whats mine, and possibly be able to get what we need. Firearm owners are said to represent about 1/3 of the population. That means the other 2/3 have stuff I may want or need.
Communication... I go back and forth on this. While major communication systems may be down, permanently, there are handheld radios which operate independantly of any broadcast system or cell system. I think there may be times, I myself for example, would seperate to scout ahead. I'd want those that are mine to alert me of danger from behind or some presence seprating us, or emergency I have to return to. Or I'd want to let them know its ok to advance. I dunno and cant predict circumstances, but I can see pros in having close communication. There are cons too, like an alert over the radio giving away one's presence.
That brings up another consumable, batteries. Theyre small, but you can only carry so many and they wont last forever and will likely disappear fast in an emergency "bug out" scenario. Should we become reliant on things that wont last? We can adapt now, or later.
I know this isnt comprehennsive. There are many more things and each of us will have packs and plans tailored to our individual need, climate and living conditions, but we can share ideas to benefit one another as I'm sure we all over look stuff.
The CDC said to be prepared for Zombies and youll be prepared for anything. I'd like to add the best laid plans will likely fail us as we cant predict every scenario. So among the the essentials, our wits about us and ingenuity are perhaps the most valuable. The ability to improvise and adapt will likely benefit us more than any equipment we carry or any plan we construct. We may not face Zombies, but it could be terrorism, either foreign or domestic, a complete fracturing of the govt and economy, an attack from the "evil axis" because they see our weakened economy and divided govt, something like a "Jericho" situation... Who knows.
What else can we add?
We cant load down like a pack mule, if you need that much, then it should probably be in a "bug in" safe house or shelter. But you cant move quickly and efficiently carrying 100's of pounds of gear.
There are essentials you always need, and of other things should probably have enough for a few days of travel I'd think. But how many MRE's can you carry? Some of the stuff we carry will get burned up and used, "consumables".
So what do you consider essential gear, must haves at all times?
What consumables would you carry and how much?
I kinda feel the first few days to a week will be critical. Keep your head, think clearly and at least make educated decisions. So easy to carry foods and water. This period in my mind is no time to be dehydrated. It may take a few or several days to get clear of highly populated and city areas, but moving could be slow if infrastructer is a parking lot and youre avoiding main travel routes.
So what are we talking? MRE's, protien and energy bars? Thing with food is it requires water to digest so I wouldnt wanna over do it either, but carbs and protiens sure. Water is a must, I like hydration packs or easy to carry canteens like mil-surp collapsable canteens.
For the water, purification tablets would probably be necessary initially until a clean source is found, or until more can be purified by straining and boiling. There are hand held purifiers, but thats room that may have to give way to other more important essentials.
So whats essential?
Fire is one. There are threads already detailing what products people rely on, but almost all of these things get consumed in time. Though there is also the recipe for the homemade fire starters which with some good finds along the way can be reproduced. But again, initially, everyone should probably have some redundancy in their fire starting plan with an ability to start fire in any condition.
First aid? At least some basic stuff but probably some emergency stuff to like trauma bandages, maybe even sutures, hemostats, and needles. Which reminds me, I think some minor pain meds too. Antibiotics will probably be scarce in a short period of time, so pack some. Antibiotics, alcohol swabs, bandages...
Clothes, just a few changes and enough socks to rotate through and enough to deal with changing weather.
I'm gonna go ahead and say firearms and ammo. Some here have vast collections, or at least enough that not every firearm can be carried. But I feel there should be a firearm for every able body and pair of hands, plus a back up or two. If you dont have ammo and cant get ammo, I wouldnt carry it. I would however carry as much ammo as possible for each firearm.
Heres a thought on firearms and ammo. We have several firearms which use the same ammunition which kinda simplifies things. It may also come down to a cost/benefit analysis of weight and space taken vs. what else can the space be used for. But I wanna be able to defend whats mine, and possibly be able to get what we need. Firearm owners are said to represent about 1/3 of the population. That means the other 2/3 have stuff I may want or need.
Communication... I go back and forth on this. While major communication systems may be down, permanently, there are handheld radios which operate independantly of any broadcast system or cell system. I think there may be times, I myself for example, would seperate to scout ahead. I'd want those that are mine to alert me of danger from behind or some presence seprating us, or emergency I have to return to. Or I'd want to let them know its ok to advance. I dunno and cant predict circumstances, but I can see pros in having close communication. There are cons too, like an alert over the radio giving away one's presence.
That brings up another consumable, batteries. Theyre small, but you can only carry so many and they wont last forever and will likely disappear fast in an emergency "bug out" scenario. Should we become reliant on things that wont last? We can adapt now, or later.
I know this isnt comprehennsive. There are many more things and each of us will have packs and plans tailored to our individual need, climate and living conditions, but we can share ideas to benefit one another as I'm sure we all over look stuff.
The CDC said to be prepared for Zombies and youll be prepared for anything. I'd like to add the best laid plans will likely fail us as we cant predict every scenario. So among the the essentials, our wits about us and ingenuity are perhaps the most valuable. The ability to improvise and adapt will likely benefit us more than any equipment we carry or any plan we construct. We may not face Zombies, but it could be terrorism, either foreign or domestic, a complete fracturing of the govt and economy, an attack from the "evil axis" because they see our weakened economy and divided govt, something like a "Jericho" situation... Who knows.
What else can we add?
I carry it all the time! I have the space blanket you mentioned and as you suggested, I also have roughly 250' of paracord for things from snares to hoisting and shelter.