Why do BOBs resemble an apocolypse trading bin instead of a backpacking pack?

The interesting thing and the one that worries me is the reliance on sustanance farming(gardening) in the 'burbs should we need it.

When we came to the suburbs(small to middle sized city)- Dad no longer had room to grow a decent garden so first he rented space to do so at a local farm. He found that as quickly as his veggies matured, they disappeared. First he thought deer, then he found out others were taking the fruit and veggies.

Then he and my uncle bought 5 acres about 15 miles outside of town in a rural area..... same deal.

For every person willing to work to produce something, there are 5 that will take it if given the opportunity. I am sorry if this seems pessimistic, but 47 years has taught me this.

I live in a nice quiet neighborhood, county emergency center is 4oo yards away, a nice young LEO lives across the street, I have supplies for yardwork and house maintenance outside that have been there unmolested. I have three ATVS and a nice ladder outside that are chained but have never been tampered with.

But I GUARANTEE you that if food was short and I had plants growing outside- much if not all of the fruits of my labor would be enjoyed by others- uninvited.

I have always lived with the formula that there is 1 dirtbag in every 100 people. 1 out of 10 dirtbags will actively do a person harm if given the chance. So 1 out of 1K are really dangerous. I would multiply that number by 10 in such a crisis.

Bill
 
"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity"

BOB's have become about preparing for the extremely unlikely survival tasks instead of the likely ones. They are cluttered because people have been sold on the idea that a bug out situation will involve them fighting lots of zombies (explains the silly amounts of guns and ammo), and the idea that they need all sorts of marginally useful nick-nacks to help them out along the way (everything else that isn't food, water, shelter, or documentation).

A better way of going about packing such a bag would be to pack a nondescript bag as if you were going ultralight backpacking unsupported for a week or two (or three) and then throwing in any important documentation you might need along the way. The rest can be more food and water.

The fact is that most places people live would be completely unsustainable without the modern infrastructure and governance mechanisms in place. The amount of guns you have will not change that. You can not live in a city without large scale agriculture to feed it, or a power grid to power it, or technicians to maintain it. Neither can you run to the boonies with your bag of tricks and expect to survive (yes, a few exceptional cases exist where they managed it). Sometimes with questionable means.

Staying put where all your stuff is, is an infinitely preferable solution to trying to move all your stuff at the same time as everyone else, or trying to hoof it with a few choice bits. This is probably why the dedicated survivalists live out in the hinterboonies with all their stuff. For everyone else there is bugging in and living with the risk of things going sideways.

What if I can't stay? What if I can't come back?

There may come a time where you are displaced for a week or two, but this would require some very significant local event. Such events are rarely wide spread, instead bugging out would be about getting out of the immediate area of effect with the intention of coming back when the situation normalizes or settling up elsewhere in the confines of society. How are the guns going to help anyone file an insurance claim?

If things have not gone back to normal after the first week or two, and you have not found somewhere else to hang your hat, then things are really badly messed up and a backpack sized kit will not save you. You can't live as an unsupported refugee long term. There are all sorts of problems with that, not least being that even wild places are often private property. Even if you could it would mean leaving those near and dear to you who are less mobile to fend for themselves.
 
A BOB should have water, a way to purify/treat more as contaminated water is often a problem in a disaster. Also clothing/raingear as this is the first line of defense against exposure. You don't need to be running off to the mountains to be subject to exposure if forced to evacuate from your home. There should be food as that doesn't hurt. There should be a radio to get news as cell phone service might be down. Flashlight/headlamp, knife, FAK, GPS/compass, road maps etc etc etc. Also a means to defend your life and those of family and friends against those who might take advantage of the lack of local police other ER personal.

On a side note before anyone starts busting on other's preps and bags we have a 16 page thread on using a knife for defense against wild animal attacks. :rolleyes:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1097908-Protection-knife-against-wild-animals

The zombies have nothing on that. How many threads about trip outings with people actually using their gear in the field gets just a few views and responses? How many "If you could only have on knife" threads get tons of reviews and responses? How many knives languish as safe queens?

On a side note the backpack survivalist ideal is one born of ignorance. It is hard in them there hills. LOL! A BOB IMHO should be used to get from an evacuation area to a well stocked backup location, maybe a friend's or family home.
 
Macchina said:
I almost never see tents packed, and the large surplus GoreTex bivys are seen far more often than tents.
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i agree with the OP on most points, but only halfway on the tent.
if we all had to bug out right now; how many of you would be sleeping outside?
i wouldn't.
 
Steffen said:
i agree with the OP on most points, but only halfway on the tent.
if we all had to bug out right now; how many of you would be sleeping outside?
i wouldn't.
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I guess that depends on how messed up the situation is. I do not plan to sleep outside but the sun sets every day. I have been caught without a room for the night several times on run of the mill roadtrips where the route was not planned ahead of time. I ended up sleeping in the car or driving in shifts through the night. Where will you sleep?
 
lmalterna said:
I have always lived with the formula that there is 1 dirtbag in every 100 people. 1 out of 10 dirtbags will actively do a person harm if given the chance. So 1 out of 1K are really dangerous. I would multiply that number by 10 in such a crisis.
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My outdoor rec professor had a theory about a "10% weenie factor." Similarly, I think the dirtbag ratio more closely matches 10% than 1%, and in some areas or under certain circumstances one must be prepared for a 40-60% dirtbag ratio. :D
 
Bob W said:
My outdoor rec professor had a theory about a "10% weenie factor." Similarly, I think the dirtbag ratio more closely matches 10% than 1%, and in some areas or under certain circumstances one must be prepared for a 40-60% dirtbag ratio. :D
Click to expand...
I wish I could say that you are wrong, but unfortunately, I agree completely.
 
I always get a chuckle reading about people's "bug out" fantasies and the ridiculous amounts of impractical gear they pile up in their "bug out" bags. The recent phenomenon of doomsday/zombie/disaster preppers is really something quite interesting to analyze in a psychological sense. People always seek a means of providing fear in their lives - it focuses us and allows for an "us against them" mentality. Usually this would come in the form of a war, which provides us a common enemy and unites us at the same time. However, since most American have no idea that we are just winding down hostilities in the longest war(s) in our history, we must find other ways to provide fear in our lives. Our increasing disconnectedness from our fellow man, courtesy of the internet and other technologies, has helped engender the lone-wolf mentality as well as the general feeling among Americans that our country and the world are headed in the wrong direction (which means many different things to different people). Focusing on some vague end of the world scenario where we survive against all odds with our 2 tons of gear (1 1/2 tons of which are guns and ammo), gives many a welcome escape from what is, for many, a sadly depressing existence.
 
I was just listening to a Neil Degrasse Tyson podcast and in it he interviewed Mark Brooks, author of the Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z. And Mark talked about how people fantasize about things like zombie apocalypse and things of that nature because it's a fear they believe they can prepare for and control, as opposed to many of the other stress and anxiety factors that are in our lives and loom over our heads. Prepping is a way for these people to achieve a sense of security and control over things that are fat beyond their control.
 
bushfires been too dam close to us for the last week
Between being on and off again different levels of alert and having evac warnings issued and cancelled .. bug out bags , and preparing to come back to nothing but ashes is not so far fetched
so far we have been seriously fortunate .
news link on fires here
Thats not far from where my wife is , there is on that is almost contained , and a few that arent , on the other side of the hills from my house .
Not preparing for zombie invasion , but we are prepared to pick up and run on pretty short notice . Odd stuff thrown into our gear on last minute without a lot of thinking it thru ? dam right there is .. dam right . hell some gear is just thrown in because I didnt want to see it burn if the fires DO get to my home .
 
yes but a lighter, small first aid kit (gauze, ace bandage) and emergency blanket can also save your life and weigh less than a pound so I hope no one is knocking going in to the woods a little heavy just to be safe.
 
Take care down there Myal. Very sad to see the fires on the news. I love that area - we stay at the Macquarie Inn often, and hanging on my wall at work is a photo of the coal pier at Catherine Hill Bay. :(
 
I keep telling people to take their bug-out gear out and actually USE it. Try it out. Spend a weekend actually using it.

You'd be surprised how few do.

My friends and I made this a competition for years - how little gear could you take and still be comfortable. Or juts testing what was available. We threw away half or more of what we tried.
 
"Preparing" has been going on as long as man has been in motion. Prepping for a hard winter- getting shelter ready and food layed in. Prepping for financial collaps after the Great DEpression- I remmeber my grandparents keeping a few sets of all clothing new in the wrapper, basement full of canned goods from the farm, they survived the Depression and did not forget the lessons.

In the 1950's people built bomb shelters and stocked basements with food and water. People in tornado alley long built root cellars and stocked them. We joke about zombies today- but the act of preparing to be housebound in bad circumstamces is a good precaution, no matter what reason you put forth. There are zealots in any thought discipline....religion, politics or "prepping"- just because there are some over enthusiastic followers of an idea does not discount the validity of the idea.

Everyone decides their need. my BOB- sits in the closet by the front door: 2 changes of clothes, 1 pair shoes, medicines, important documents and a little cash, spare set of car and house keys, list of policy numbers and phone numbers---it serves an unplanned evacuation like fire or severe storm. My car has an emergency kit for mechanical failure and FAK- along with a get home bag. IF I were ever to bug out from home for an extended period, I would nee the SUV to carry the things I feel would see me through.

Bill
 
jb83. Thank you for your excellent post. Perhaps one of the best I've read here on BF. FWIW I've been backpacking for 30 years and never considered escaping to the wilderness for more than a few seconds before realizing that after any initial local conflict, hard work, trade and barter was going to be my most likely plan for success.
 
"Why not spend more time prepping for real world things that are actually likely to happen in your real life instead of zombies?"

I started off buying the "survival" supplies, but I pretty quickly realized that I wasn't ready for normal bad happenings. So, I got some fire extinguishers and a fire escape ladder. Got more peace out of that than my 20 pocket knives. Then I got some freeze dried food and a bunch of 5-gallon blocks for the basement. Man, that felt good. Then, we stocked up a very nice home FAK...which we have used a lot. And I'm trying to get my wife into doing some canning with me. And I replaced the cheap dead bolts on my door with the more reinforced stuff and longer screws. Not as glamorous, but much more satisfying.

Do we have a bug out bag? Sure. It just makes sense, but I've recently started to redesign it more toward just what you guys are saying...an extended camp out adventure. And the kids have their own bags with changes of clothes and some toiletries.

To be honest, if we ever got forced out the house, my available credit card balance is probably my best "prep". I refuse to stay in the Superdome. Nope, notta.

And the trunk of my car carries a smaller get home bag. It's light weight and for fast movement. If I need to get home, I need to get home NOW.

And I'm working out, running elliptical, and trying to be in the best shape of anybody I know. Ha ha. Well, that's the goal. Genetics have something to say about that though.
 
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