BOB's, what they are and why you want one....

[Plainsman]

Most people who think BOB, think BUG OUT BAG, meaning grab and run from trouble! This isn't the whole truth!

I have a BOB, but my home is my "castle" and I will stay here until it is ready to collapse around me. Hence, I am not about to grab and run, especially with a 4 month old child and wife.

So what purpose does my BOB serve? It is there for the POSSIBILITY of needing to run. But I USE it more often as a means of having substantial gear ready ANYTIME WE TRAVEL. Even going a 100 miles away, I throw a BOB in. More times than not it becomes a BHB...Meaning BUG HOME BAG. It has what I need to keep me going to get back home.

Up north it was called WINTER SURVIVAL KIT!

Down here it is for travel in HOT WEATHER. Hence many items have changed. I carry A LOT more water than I did in ND.

You need to think of Greg's Five Essentials and work from there for your individual needs. Going from a cold, snow filled environment to a HOT, wet, rainy environment really changed the things in my BOB. I DEFINITELY don't need those wool blankets AND a 20 deg sleeping bag in TX.

THink about your situation and decide for yourself. You may want one to get across 30 miles of city after an earthquake to get home again. You may need one to survive a winter storm. You may need one to survive a car failure in the middle of the desert. It all depends upon where you are.

Good luck!



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Plainsman
primitiveguy@hotmail.com

You use what you have on you, then you improvise!

 

[Hoodoo]

Plainsman,

I think you make a really excellent point. We need to think about how practical our BOBs really are. For instance, I love the intro to Greg's book where a simple foray into the woods by a hunter quickly leads to a survival situation for lack of simple preparedness. As a long-time hunter, it's a situation I could easily find myself in (actually, I very nearly did find myself in a similar situation, hunting elk some 25 years ago near Lolo, Montana). Thus, let the BOB or survival kit or whatever you want to call it, fit the situation.


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Hoodoo

No, I do not weep at the world--I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.
Zora Neale Hurston

Oversharpen the blade, and the edge will soon blunt.
Lao Tsu

 

[mcerler]

I don't call mine a BOB, it's more like a three day kit with everything necessary for my family to be relatively comfortable during a short term emergency. If it comes to bugging out, I'll take the house and leave the area.

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"Actions speak louder than words"