Bug out bags

This always kills me. Watching all these people on Facebook making their bug out bags now. Cool, so your bugging out, but to where? This isn't the open west and you leaving the city and tring shoot up the country in a SHTF time is just likely to get you shot yourself.

They post "I'm gonna kill squirrels and such to survive." I wonder how many of these guys ate a squirrel and if they did, noticed without potatoes, or rice or something else they wouldn't be satisfied. Not to mention in the country out here, we don't have a lot of trees everywhere, so not a lot of squirrels unless near the mountains and such. Plus squirrels aren't a long term plan. When the whole world is scratching for food your plan is to live off tree rats when a lot of other might also. Great plan Garth

See if SHTF I'm going to bug in. I would work with my neighbors and we would work together to survive. I can imagine these types of bug outters running to our area and try to survive by competing against the locals. Which is going to be a good way to fail.

Archeryrob said:

This always kills me. Watching all these people on Facebook making their bug out bags now. Cool, so your bugging out, but to where? This isn't the open west and you leaving the city and tring shoot up the country in a SHTF time is just likely to get you shot yourself.

They post "I'm gonna kill squirrels and such to survive." I wonder how many of these guys ate a squirrel and if they did, noticed without potatoes, or rice or something else they wouldn't be satisfied. Not to mention in the country out here, we don't have a lot of trees everywhere, so not a lot of squirrels unless near the mountains and such. Plus squirrels aren't a long term plan. When the whole world is scratching for food your plan is to live off tree rats when a lot of other might also. Great plan Garth

See if SHTF I'm going to bug in. I would work with my neighbors and we would work together to survive. I can imagine these types of bug outters running to our area and try to survive by competing against the locals. Which is going to be a good way to fail.

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I keep get home bags in my wife's and my vehicles. No plans to ever make a bug out bag.

LOL.

What about the family of 4 (hubby, wife and 2 kids)
and hubby makes his perfect bug out bag with 0 actual experience in anything truly tactical or bush related, but wait, there is a catch.
He only makes one bag. What's he going to say "Sorry hun, looks like you and the kids are bugging in. I'm outa here." lololol.

I could easily live off squirrels as long as i have access to garlic and onions too.

Flour and butter would be nice too

bug out is for small nuke or dirty bomb where I'm at. Full nuke, I'm dead.
Shelter in place is the new thing cause that's more likely as we have seen. Virus, market collapse, Power Grid failure.
FINALLY I may have enough time to start and fully finish a complete game of Monopoly with 4 people!

squaregrouper said:

I keep get home bags in my wife's and my vehicles. No plans to ever make a bug out bag.

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This. Some basics in case i have to abandon a vehicle and get home on foot.

Always thoguth the 'bug out bag' BS was jsut another stupid excuse to buy a lot of dumb stuff.

StantonCree said:

I could easily live off squirrels as long as i have access to garlic and onions too.

Flour and butter would be nice too

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I grow garlic, you can eat that "garlic grass" in the yard that is like some kind of small Onion. I have a supply of garlic chives growing wild in the yard. I got corn and a mill, but I'd have to trade some of the milkers for butter, but the milk truck won't be coming, if its SHTF, so I'm sure they would trade.

I'm still working on the rocket stove. It works, I just need to make it work better. I also am making a slide on tops. Got an old griddle to place on it and figure I could make an oven on top of it. Got to tinker with something when I get bored. I can't drink beer ALL DAY.

When packing your bug out bag be sure to include a bridge.

These folks could have used one:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_of_Refugees_Across_Wrecked_Bridge_in_Korea

Same idiots hoarding TP? How are they going to carry it all? This isn't a bug out scenario.

Bug out bags always seem odd to me unless someone already has supplies at a sustainable shelter like with family or a vacation home.

It would be very difficult to walk away from the amount of food, ammo, and other resources most of us have acquired in their primary residence.

scout6 said:

Same idiots hoarding TP? How are they going to carry it all?

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Exactly. If they're planning to go cross country they should just plan to rough it as far as TP. Plenty of natural solutions out there.

Where are you going to bug out to around here? The traffic is horrendous on a normal day when people aren't in fear of their lives.

Get home bags make a ton of sense, however.

I used to have grand visions of bugging out to the Undisclosed Location (tm) but then I realized that being there was simply unsustainable.

Bugging out is synonymous with being a refugee and refugees always get screwed.

I'm in the hunkering down camp.

My BOB is mainly set up as a get outta the house and go to a hotel. Not for wilderness use, although some items are dual use.

I need to get around and update/ change some things.

Bags make more sense if you are bugging out for something regional like a wildfire or flood.

Ghb. Get home bag

Bob. Bug out bag

Inch. I’m never coming home bag.

There’s lots of wannabes who have never carried a pack never mind a forty plus pound pack. Still more ain’t gonna walk more than a couple of miles and that on a flat and unobstructed surface.

Leaving home while the lights and water are still on doesn’t seem prudent. If your neighbors are that bad, you shoulda left long ago.

Next thing regarding your bag. How far are you from home? What is the WX situation? When you drive anywhere, do you think about distance in terms of mpg and miles or hours it would take to walk? Do you plan on a direct and unimpeded walk home?

There’s lots of questions (read requirements) to ask/ establish before you start buying shit and putting it in the bag. Once you know what, then you are compelled to figure out the how and practice.

Shit, the bag and contents are the easy part...

Melnic said:

bug out is for small nuke or dirty bomb where I'm at. Full nuke, I'm dead.
Shelter in place is the new thing cause that's more likely as we have seen. Virus, market collapse, Power Grid failure.
FINALLY I may have enough time to start and fully finish a complete game of Monopoly with 4 people!

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More or less this.

I could see certain types of natural disasters the same. Social unrest IE the country going to crap, unless for some crazy reason I know something like "all you've gotta do is get to X location where all the like minded people are" I am sure as hell not budging.

I do have a BoB for me and my wife, because you never know. They are as much get home bags if crap looks dicey, I'd throw it in my car.

We both have get home bags already, but they are the BAREbones emergency stuff.

Some foil blankets, pocket knife, lighter, 1L bottle of water, a couple of energy bars, small LED flash light and small first aid kit along with a cheap thin/collapsible backpack with the stuff in it.

the BoB have more than that. Lifestraw, about a day of dried food, canteen, canteen aluminum nesting cup, alcohol stove with about 200ml of ethanol fuel in it, 1.5L water bottle, a couple larger pocket knives, compass, rain jacket, change of socks and underwear, foil blanket, small LED lantern, small LED flashlight, an extra 2 sets of batteries that are rechargeable, small solar battery charger, 50ft paracord, work gloves. half a dozen chlorine dioxide tablets, matches and lighter and slightly nicer first aid kit. Probably forgetting something. Oh, fairly detailed map of Maryland.

Enough space for some extras like probably a couple extra days worth of MREs/freeze dried meals for us and the kids between the two bags. There is a third bag for just the kids, but its basically a plastic grocery bag with spare socks, underwear and rain jackets folded up for the kids and some energy bars. Didn't want to divide stuff between the two bags in case it was just one of us home with the kids to make it easy to shove it in one go bag. Or if time permits, divide between the two bags.

My goody go bag stays down by the safe and can be loaded to go in about 60 seconds with pistol, pistol and rifle mags, cleaning kit and trauma kit out of the safe as I shoulder my rifle and go.

Or if faster is needed, just grab the bedside handgun lock box and at least I've got a handgun and a spare mag.

But I don't see needing any of it. Almost any situation where I'd have concerns about things means staying home and hunkering down, not running away from all of my supplies.

As the OP says, to where? I don't have another property. Maybe if I did, I'd more strongly consider it a viable tactic. But hell, even there it would be just as likely someone would decide not to let me get to where I was going (fed, state or individuals).

I carry a get home bag in my company truck all the time. I’ve been doing this for years, before I ever heard of a “bug out bag”. My father always carries something similar, with him, when I was a kid. It’s Not to heavy, it has a small basic first aid kit, gloves, stocking hat, emergency blanket, several different fire making tools,pocket knife, 2 water bottles, small bottle of water flavor stuff, granola bar, ramen noodles, alcohol stove with alcohol, small aluminum pot, spork, flashlight, pen, paper, and a phone charger. It also has some paper packets of salt pepper, sugar, and a few tea bags.

I’m allowed to use my company truck, for personal use, so I drive this truck 90 percent of the time. I occasionally use the stuff in my bag. This helps me to keep the food from expiring, and keeps be familiar with everything in the bag. I also keep a wool blanket behind the seat. About twice a year, I stay at the NSSA shooting range in Winchester, and I just sleep in the truck, and eat the stuff in my bag.

Now my hunting/ trapping truck, I have everything. Lol. I move my get home bag, into this truck. That truck has a extended cab and a big knack box in the bed. It has a 8,000 pound winch, shovels, pick, hi lift jack, chains, snatch block, cables, leather gloves.
Backseat: Pillow, wool blanket, a few changes of clothes, TP, bow saw, hatchet, fishing rod, small tackle box, water bottles, and some snacks.
In the knack box is a cheap set of tools, jumper cables, jumpstart buddy that has a phone charger, and air compressor, small Honda generator, a work light, Extension cords, a few pieces of firewood, full sized axe, fire starters, a small wood grill, cast iron skillet, small aluminum pot, and a small single burner Coleman stove, and 1 gallon can of Coleman fuel. In the bed I also have 2 5 gallon Jerry cans, full of gas, and an automatic siphon hose.

Hopefully this will help all the boneheads be ready next time. But what am I talking about... After living in Florida for 7 years only a small portion of the population is ready even though hurricane season happens every year...

Bug out 10 minutes from home , or bug out in place either way should be okay . But if I leave home it would take me 40 minutes to load up .

Some people do actually have s BOL.