"After Armageddon" on History Channel

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DWK2

Joined
Nov 3, 2003
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Forgive me if this survival program has been discussed before, but I viewed it for the first time this evening.

I am curious what others thought about it? I believe there were some insightful segments and others that were pretty unrealistic. One thing about which I think they were accurate is that cities like mine will become unlivable pretty quickly. I'm in a high-density area that cannot easily be closed off and protected. Leaving would probably be necessary.

What are you feelings about the program?

Thanks,

DancesWithKnives
 
The show was a joke. I seriously doubt if that family would have survived the first week, let alone as long as they did.

The producers dislike of firearms and knives was pretty obvious, and stupid.

Following the examples and advice given in that show will get folks killed.
 
I watched it out of curiosity and because it was more interesting than the alternatives. I would give it a 6 or 7 out 10 keeping in mind that it was produced for the general viewing market. Didn't really take away anything new from it other than reinforcing that where one lives can have a huge impact on their survival plan. While the show was set in LA which would have its own set of problems, I was watching while it was 10 degrees outside and wondering how (very much) worse that scenario would be in mid-winter flu season in much of the U.S. without power or fuel. I think these shows are also good just as a reminder to inventory disaster supplies.
 
I thought it was pretty good myself. It does tell a lot of truth in how some families are not prepared for a panademic. I not saying that that alll of it could or couldn't happen but why not try to prepare for the worst now to make things a little easier the the SHTF. When the H1N1 hit around here in NJ the supermarkets were packed with people getting last minute stuff. I just sat and watched the people ransack them from my house with all my preps and food that I stored before the small outbreak.
Even my wife said at the hospital how things got so bad and they almost ran out of room. The head honchos in the ER didn't even want any children or anybody under the age of 18 to enter the hospital. So they locked the doors and monitored the cases coming in. If it was life threating they would let you in. If not then they told you to find another hospital down the road. It was that bad.
Luckly for me, the jail didnt have any outbreaks. They told us that if your sick then stay home. No if or buts. There were a few cases that happen inside but they immediately remove the inmates from general population and place them under medical observation.
So yeah I could see most of the things that happened in the show happen here in NJ. I will continue to set up things up for the worst case senario for me and family to bug out or hole up if necessary.
 
The part that cracked me up was the advice of drinking water you wouldn't normally drink to stay alive. Then they show the guy draining a radiator of an automobile and filtering it thru his shirt. Anybody ever see what anti-freeze does to an animal that drinks it?? Ain't pretty.
Also shooting the looters on the spot?? Wouldn't it be smarter to interrogate the captured looters and find out where the other looters took the stuff they stole. Go get your stuff back then hang the captured looters to save bullets.

Maybe I am just being too critical.
 
I thought the show was interesting at the very least.

Tonight at 9pm (EST) they will be airing Apocalypse Man ... looking forward to that.
 
I only got to watch the first hour of it, some of it was interesting, like when they would show what happened during "katrina", store shelves empty, everybody stocking up, but some of it was over the top.....I couldn't believe that they had Michael Bane, who does some of the personal defense shows on the outdoorchannel, not even suggesting that you might need a small firearm for personal protection.....but I only got to watch the first hour of it!!!!!
 
Wasnt it only an hour long? I copied it, and thought that it was to be two hours, but credits rolled after an hour. I enjoyed it. Saw many things wrong with it also but I did learn a couple of tid-bits. I believe Bear's new season begins tonight.
 
Looking forward to Apocolypse Man. Always looking for new stuff to try out or do. LOL
 
I've been looking at property outside of LA for the last several months so the show hit pretty close to home for me.

Some parts ticked me off---such as when the family finds a dead guy in a vehicle that contains a simple small revolver and the father makes some snide remark about the deceased owner having been some kind of cowboy or the like. It wasn't exactly a Westinghouse electric Gatling gun!

Some parts were really stupid, like when the fellow sneaks into the warehouse guarded by an armed gang---and doesn't even take the revolver he previously came into possession of. Then the wife (who from the context of the show presumably knows nothing about firearms) shows up with the revolver and actually hits one of the bad guys? And the other bad guys don't manage to kill them?!?!

DancesWithKnives
 
I found it to be pretty interesting. I did scoff at the antifreeze too but i found the family's experiences and gradual increasing arguments and final escape out of LA as believable. It also made me think about the importance of some serious firearms as part of your bug out plan. It also made me look at my bag and the pitifully small first aid kit designed for a couple days max and reevaluate what i may need to survive in a worst case scenerio. So for me I was entertained and it got me thinking about a longer term survival situation so you could nit pick a few of the details but overall i found it worthwhile.
 
I have never seen a show so retarded and refreshing at the same time.

On the positive side of things:

Disabusing folks of the notion that Uncle Sugar is gonna save them when the entire emergency services infrastructure collapses Whether one is talking food, water, medicine, or basic security, their message was a loud and clear "You're on your own in a calamity this large."

That if you're going to hunker down, you're going to need more than three days worth of food and water on hand.

That fleeing in a vehicle is going to be extremely difficult. Even initial success will be met by a shortage of available refueling.

To make and have ready a B.O.B.

That with so many a firearms out there, a firearm is a good thing to have yourself.

That predatory humans who survive the pandemic are going to act without a conscience--just like they already do.

Booze is a big part of the future.

Now the retarded things:

The paramedic, with access to a local hospital, was allowed to steal medical supplies. In a real crisis, every hospital I have ever seen will restrict access to critical supplies as SOP.

Making your house "look" picked over is not going to deter any systemic looters from checking it out anyways.

Fleeing to "Idaho" was an idea bordering on suicidally stupid. When the internet and phone net crashed no one even knew if the sister's family in spud country was even still alive. Too far.

If your Surburban still runs, drive it further away from contact and replace the shot up tire with the spare rather than putting yourself in the position of walking that early in your bug out. In the specific scenario, there are plenty of places to drive into and out of the concrete rivers of the LA basin to head north.

Take a knife and a multitool you paramedic nimrod. There were literally thousands upon thousands of hot water heaters, toilet tanks, rain catchment systems and other easy fresh water sources to tap. Hell, one could even slice up, pulp, and distill the water out of the numerous cacti encountered rather than suffer near death from dehydration.

Encountering armed gangs and relying upon their common decency is a loser's bet. Get more creative than bartering from a position of weakness with thugs and having them just rob you.

If you are on foot, stay off of the road. You will be at a terrible disadvantage encountering anyone with a working vehicle.

As redneck as the family found the small town in Nevada, they should have stayed there. Tolerate the religious fire and brimstone and frontier justice for awhile until things calm down a bit. They had radio contact with the outside world and much intelligence could have been gleaned about moving north more patiently.

In a world where once again a simple infection can kill ya dead, wear gloves while gardening.
 
I liked the idea of seeking a food distribution center, and what they found was probably accurate as well: armed guards, probably organized crime. I thought it insightful to assume organized crime would have a plan, and have the tools for success.

Think of a bike gang - mobile on limited fuel, armed to the teeth, experienced and already organized with a set hierarchy. Whatever installation they target would probably not withstand them.
 
Just for fun, a firearms question for those of you with shooting/hunting/military/LE experience. Assume that you have a group of three adults and you're forced to hike out of LA for a smaller town somewhere. Each of you has a gun collection and for a long arm can select between an AR type rifle, an AK variant, and a M1A/M14. Each of you is equally comfortable with all of them. For weight reasons, you can carry only one long arm each. [I'm setting aside shotguns and other types of rifles for purposes of this question.]

Do you collectively decide to stick with one variety of rifle for ammo, magazine, and parts interchangeability? Do you each select a different rifle on the theory that you can't carry a sufficient long-term supply of ammo so you want to have at least one rifle that will be likely to accept whatever ammo you are able to beg/borrow/steal along the way?

I recognize that the limitations make it an unrealistic question but I'm mostly curious about whether folks would more highly value commonality of weapons or flexibility in ammo scrounging?

Thanks for your thoughts.

DancesWithKnives
 
I believe that ammunition would become one of the most valuable items. Attempting to scrounge for it, or barter for it would meet with little success. If in a static situation, reloading is a viable solution as long as your supply of powder and primers hold up. You can cast your own bullets. Wheelweights are alloyed, and will work for centerfire bullets. On the move, what you carry is probably what you can count on, nothing more. This is why I always factor in a rimfire. If I carry a centerfire rifle or shotgun, I carry a RF pistol. Keep in mind that 50 rounds of .45 ACP 230 grain weighs almost the same as 500 rounds of .22 LR. Go with .22 shorts and you drop to around 2 1/2 lbs per 500 rds. I laugh at the people who dismiss the .22 short as a small game cartridge. A good air rifle is a good small game tool. Figure it fires a 6-8 grain pellet at 1,000 ft/sec. A .22 short fires a 29 grain projectile at the same or higher velocity. I can not even began to count the number of small game I have taken with them. As for defense, I certainly would not wish to take a hit from the .22 short. I have not played with the .17s yet.
 
I have problems with these shows. Mostly that this one's on the HISTORY Channel. History has to do with past events. This has nothing to do with history and therefore should not be on a channel dedicated to history. There are plenty of other channels where this would fit right in and that annoys me. Aside from that though, I find that shows that depict the apocolypse and its aftermath to be ridiculous and unscientific, they just pay some supposedly educated people who probably went to Fairleigh Dickinson University or some similar "educational institution", to sit in front of the camera and say what the world's going to be like when an asteroid hit, zombification, "Glowbill Warming", super sun flare, alien attack, etc. occurs. Then they make some incredibly over the top computer animated picture. All this nonsense pretending to be educational just so they can make a few bucks. That's why I don't watch much TV anymore, I'd rather sit down and read; you get more correct knowledge from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. That's the way I see it.
 
jw2n said:
I believe that ammunition would become one of the most valuable items. Attempting to scrounge for it, or barter for it would meet with little success. If in a static situation, reloading is a viable solution as long as your supply of powder and primers hold up. You can cast your own bullets. Wheelweights are alloyed, and will work for centerfire bullets. On the move, what you carry is probably what you can count on, nothing more. This is why I always factor in a rimfire. If I carry a centerfire rifle or shotgun, I carry a RF pistol. Keep in mind that 50 rounds of .45 ACP 230 grain weighs almost the same as 500 rounds of .22 LR. Go with .22 shorts and you drop to around 2 1/2 lbs per 500 rds. I laugh at the people who dismiss the .22 short as a small game cartridge. A good air rifle is a good small game tool. Figure it fires a 6-8 grain pellet at 1,000 ft/sec. A .22 short fires a 29 grain projectile at the same or higher velocity. I can not even began to count the number of small game I have taken with them. As for defense, I certainly would not wish to take a hit from the .22 short. I have not played with the .17s yet.
Click to expand...

Agreed that if you're carrying a service rifle, an accurate .22 handgun would be good to have for the reasons you enunciate.

DancesWithKnives
 
Boats,

You make some very good points, which I failed to acknowledge when I got off of the firearms tangent. I too would have stayed in the first secure community I reached, even if I wasn't thrilled with their religion, etc. You could probably still leave if local conditions deteriorated or the overall situation eventually improved.

DancesWithKnives
 
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