The Urban B.O.B

MyWifeThinksImCrazy said:
Hey ROCK6 do you have a list or maybe a youtube video that talks about all of what you have in that list? What you have there would seem to cover ya very well in any urban environment. Now it's got me thinking maybe I sould get something like that together, but I do live fairly close to a wooded area. One can never be too prepared I suppose.
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Boy, I'd have to go off memory as this was built for my last duty station and I'm enjoying the rural life right now.

About the only "technical" addition was some emergency rappel line and a mini-belay device. I originally carried about 12 feet of standard rappel line to make a Swiss seat, but I also added a rigger's belt with emergency D-ring for rappeling.

If you have any specific questions I can try to answer them via email/PM, but I'd have to go back through that picture to list them out again:o

One cool addition I still maintain is the Sawzall...a simple folding hacksaw that works quite well.

ROCK6
 
In reading the thread I see (or dont see) a very important item. Consider a good pair of knee and elbow pads. Having worked quite a bit in industrial enviroments I really came to appreciate having that padded thick plastic shell between my kneecap and nails,gravel,broken glass ect. They take some getting used to but you will get so accustomed to them that you dont even notice you have them on (having found myself walking thru the grocery store and wondering why people are staring :) ). You can get really good ones (cheap) at most home improvement stores, Lowes or Home Depot ect or order a "tactical set" from an online supplier. Trust me your appendages will thank you.
 
Water. Clean potable water. If you survive some major disaster, that's what you're going to need to survive for the long haul. You can survive for weeks without food, without clean water... days.

I don't see much discussion on how to get it or sterilize it here. That means most of you are going to die from thirst or dysentery. All those BOBs full of snare wire, batteries, pistol magazines and "silencers" won't help you any when you can't find a drop of clean water because the rest of the survivors don't know better than to not crap in the water supply.
 
CWL said:
Water. Clean potable water. If you survive some major disaster, that's what you're going to need to survive for the long haul. You can survive for weeks without food, without clean water... days.

I don't see much discussion on how to get it or sterilize it here. That means most of you are going to die from thirst or dysentery. All those BOBs full of snare wire, batteries, pistol magazines and "silencers" won't help you any when you can't find a drop of clean water because the rest of the survivors don't know better than to not crap in the water supply.
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I don't know if anyone's thought about this but if you live in a home with a sump in the basement, there will be unlimited amounts of water from that baby.

If your're stuck at home when TSHTF just filter and sterilize. One of the advantages of living in an individual home.
 
digdeep said:
If your're stuck at home when TSHTF just filter and sterilize. One of the advantages of living in an individual home.
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You are placing a lot of assumptions that water services are still available.
 
95% of BOB's are really nothing more than GHB (GET HOME BAGS). They allow one to go to and from work or wherever, and in the event of a situation, tools to get out of a situation so one can get home to where the real supplies are.
 
If there is water available, I will drink it. No matter what it looks like, I'd rather die a week later from dysentery, than die today from dehydration. But as a rule o thumb you should have enough to last 72 hours, and then start looking for sources. Water is one of the heaviest things to carry around (8 lbs per gallon), so I try to keep enough with me to last until I can find another source. A steripen or purification kit is awesome, but they can be expensive. You can rig up a filter using foam padding, fabric and charcoal, and then boil what comes out of that.
 
I look at my urban survival bag a little different.

Mine is vey light for getting back to my family where I would stay at my house or grab our family BOB’s and go.

If the family needs to leave with there BOB’s earlier than I can get back to them, I still want it as light as possible to get to them if I have to be on foot.

Therefore, I just pack an extra set of synthetic clothes, sleeping bag and bivy sack, small cook pot, poncho, flashlight, small first aid kit plus misc other items.

Tools would be a Leuku and pistol with 40 rounds of ammunition. The pack only weights 14 pounds.

The only purpose of this urban BOB is to get to my family a.s.a.p.

If I had to I could easily travel a very long distance to meet up with them in 3 days.

Geoff
 
CWL said:
You are placing a lot of assumptions that water services are still available.
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Not at all.

If water services are down, the sump will always provide because it takes in ground water through gravity. The reason a sump needs an electrical pump is to discharge an overfilled gravity fed sump.

Since the sump pump will not work during an electrical failure, you will have a sump filling with more than enough water to survive forever.
 
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I totally forgot about my Micro Pur tablets, haha. I need a good filtration bottle though.

Anyone know any manufacturers / brands?
 
digdeep said:
Not at all.

If water services are down, the sump will always provide because it takes in ground water through gravity. The reason a sump needs an electrical pump is to discharge an overfilled gravity fed sump.

Since the sump pump will not work during an electrical failure, you will have a sump filling with more than enough water to survive forever.
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I don't have a basement in my house, let alone a sump. The majority of US cities do not draw from a natural water source. What do we do?
 
I served in a Rescue Unit in the Army.
We trained for Earthquake situations.

I have in a tool bag:
  • Small 18" Bolt Cutters
  • Pry Bar
  • Small 18" Crowbar
  • Estwing Carpenters Hatchet
  • Short Shovel
  • Small Car Jack
If I was in a country that had wood framed houses, I would add a saw.
For a small amount of money, these give me full rescue capabilites and full access to most places.

I also have a full Personal Protective Equipment or PPE bag.
And a full first aid kit, with torniques and bandages for Immediate Response to terrorist bomb attacks.

Dedicated food and water is in the house.

This is not theoretical.
In the last Lebonese war when we were rocketed, I had less than 3 hours to leave the house.
 
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neeman said:
I served in a Rescue Unit in the Army.
We trained for Earthquake situations.

I have in a tool bag:
  • Small 18" Bolt Cutters
  • Pry Bar
  • Small 18" Crowbar
  • Estwing Carpenters Hatchet
  • Short Shovel
  • Small Car Jack
If I was in a country that had wood framed houses, I would add a saw.
For a small amount of money, these give me full rescue capabilites and full access to most places.

I also have a full Personal Protective Equipment or PPE bag.
And a full first aid kit, with torniques and bandages for Immediate Response to terrorist bomb attacks.

Dedicated food and water is in the house.

This is not theoretical.
In the last Lebonese war when we were rocketed, I had less than 3 hours to leave the house.
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Great post; you guys are under constant threat and we should be learning from your experiences. Thanks for sharing neeman...I like that list:thumbup:

ROCK6
 
T.O.M. ... a couple of good videos on You Tube using a pvc cylinder with a cotton prefilter and activated charcoal (aquarium filter media) prior to tabs or steripen....

I fooled around a little this summer with a 5 gallon solar desalination unit...theory proved out but still fine tuning...it produces about 350ml in a 24hour period...12 buckets would give you 2 liters / day

if you cut a notch in a WonderBar pry bar you make a pretty good chain link fence breaking tool,
 
Hey Les Snyder, do you have a picture of your mod to the Wonder Bar and how effective is it? I would rather not carry a pair of bolt cutters (and don't) in my BOB, but something like your mod would be ideal.

Thanks!
 
CWL said:
Water. Clean potable water. If you survive some major disaster, that's what you're going to need to survive for the long haul. You can survive for weeks without food, without clean water... days.

I don't see much discussion on how to get it or sterilize it here. That means most of you are going to die from thirst or dysentery. All those BOBs full of snare wire, batteries, pistol magazines and "silencers" won't help you any when you can't find a drop of clean water because the rest of the survivors don't know better than to not crap in the water supply.
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Good point.

Most people have a bunch of food and snacks and ammunition, but little water, and no toilet paper :rolleyes:

T.O.M. said:
I totally forgot about my Micro Pur tablets, haha. I need a good filtration bottle though.

Anyone know any manufacturers / brands?
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Nalgene for plastic bottles, Klean Kanteen for stainless steel. Advantage of the SS bottles is you can boil water in them, if you have to. You can also buy 1 liter sized collapsable canteens, which are basically a plastic bag with a lid on the top. Takes up little space and could come in handy if your main bottle (s) are lost or destroyed.

I keep a full 1L Nalgene bottle in my bag, along with a number of disposable bottles of water to get me started. If I were to use up the 3-4 liters that I keep in my bag I have water purification tablets, and a cotton bandana, to clean what I collect, as well as a stainless steel canteen to boil water in.

I have the room for all of the water because I don't keep much in the way of food in any of my bags. During a 2 day mock bugout I found that I wasn't very hungry, food turned out to be an unnecesarry comfort item in the short term. A few MRE snacks (snack bread and nuts and raisins) and a 3600 calorie ration bar from Mainstay is the most I keep handy.
 
T.O.M. said:
I totally forgot about my Micro Pur tablets, haha. I need a good filtration bottle though.

Anyone know any manufacturers / brands?
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If you're asking about bottles with built-in filters, I like my Katadyn Exstream. I just looked on Katadyn's site and it looks as though they no longer make this :(. However, the MyBottle Purifier looks to be quite similar. My buddy had an Exstream (where I got the inspiration to purchase mine, a few years back) on a trip to the Dominican Republic, and all the water he drank the entire trip came from that bottle. He was in some pretty back-water-ish rural towns, visiting different clinics.

Here's a link to the newer version of the jammy I've got:
http://www.katadyn.com/en/katadyn-products/products/katadynshopconnect/katadyn-wasserfilter-ultralight-series-produkte/katadyn-mybottle-purifier-blue-splash-2/
Good luck! :thumbup:

-Nadz
 
Wouldn't strolling around with an obviously military style pack, post disaster, in an urban environment, make you a serious target?

Pretty much anyone that saw you is gonna think "that guys got stuff".......
 
Impressive kit!

A bag or two of dried beans and a water filter might be a good addition
 
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