Thread: BASIC LIST / SUGGESTED ITEMS FOR LONG TERM SURVIVAL

Hi Everyone,

That Garand article was read by more of you guys more than any non SHOT Show article ever here, over 45,000 reads in two days. It just climbed over 50,000. The guns did get here and we are going over them, taking pictures, and shooting them. The two inexpensive Winchesters are rough, but serviceable. The two refinish rifles are going to take a little research to figure out how they differ, but some of the geezers on the CMP forums have been buzzing about imperfections in the first article so we'll figure it out. The two sniper guns are sweeeet. The M1C even came with the bracket still mounted on it. More to come on that stuff soon.

This week is a bit of a light list, but good reads nonetheless. The summer hunting article contains a pretty special photo essay component about some of the rare nature in central Florida, and if you aren't familiar with the FN-FAL rifle, check that out for something really different. And this is the first of us being able to get some of the .22 replica guns from American Tactical Imports. They are clean as a whistle for inexpensive guns, and really worth a look. Hopefully we'll get our hands on one of those STG-44s soon. And if you haven't read Jim Higginbotham's stuff, you should. It will open your eyes to the discoveries of a world recognized FBI trainer. Thanks as always for being part of GunsAmerica.


Summer Hunting Anyone? – Varmint and Predator Hunting All Year Round

Calling all hunters! While most of the hunting world is off thinking about whitetails in the fall, varmint and predator hunters are gearing up for an exciting summer. I decided to write this article in collaboration with our regular hunting contributor Carlos Lopez, and our newest discovery, Dwayne Powell, who runs Kissimmee River Hunt and Fish in Okeechobee, Florida, to see if you guys would like to see a summer full of hunting here at GunsAmerica Magazine & Blog. Carlos and Dwayne are passionate hunters and hunt all year, and if we all would like them to share some of their summer experiences with us, they have agreed to put it together. (Click Here to Read More)


FN-FAL/L1A1 Quad Rail & Picatinny Rail System – Leapers UTG

This is the first in a series on tricking out stock battle rifles. We all have seen the rail systems for AR-15s, and we'll get to those, but there are other rifles like this FN-FAL/L1A1 that you don't see as often. You may remember back at SHOT Show we brought you some news from Leapers/UTG, and it was their extensive catalog that inspired this series. You would never think that such fine tuned products could be had for somewhat obscure battle rifles for such low prices, but they do exist, and they are fantastic products. If you are a fan of the FN-FAL/L1A1, check out this great quad-rail and picatinny system for the classic battle rifle known as "the right arm of the free world." ( Click Here to Read More )


Archive: Triggernometry – Seconds That Can Save Your Life

There is only one type of shooting competition that only has a trophy for second place. The trophy is generally made of granite, has an epitaph inscribed on it, and when it is awarded to you, you are surrounded by everyone you love, crying their eyes out because you are dead. It's called a tombstone. A gunfight is a competition, but it isn't a standard shooting competition like those you see in timed shooting sports. Speed is a factor, but it isn't the only factor. And there will always be factors outside of your control, such as the physical and mental state of the threatening party, his competence, how well we shoot under the pressure of a gunfight, and what we are doing while engaging our adversary to keep from getting shot (or cut, bludgeoned, etc.). ( Click Here to Read More )




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'Preppers' stockpile food, arms, tools to ensure survival at a doomsday's notice

4 comments by Scott Craven - May. 12, 2012 04:59 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com

Tim Ralston gets along well with his neighbors, greeting each with a nod and a smile when he sees them along his quiet northern Scottsdale street. Good people, all.

But when society collapses, Ralston won't be around if anyone needs to borrow a cup of sugar.

Or anything else.

Oh, Ralston is fully stocked for the end of times. Tucked inside his "bug-out vehicle" -- what a survivalist would call the trailer parked in his garage that's ready to go within minutes -- is almost a year's worth of food, from canned beef and turkey to powdered milk and hundreds of dehydrated meals.

There are firearms too, including handguns and a laser-sighted rifle. Because if there is one thing Ralston is sure about, people are going to get very angry very quickly when a solar storm knocks out the power grid. Or the economy collapses. Or zombies attack (though fictional, Ralston still has the perfect tool for reintroducing the undead to death).

Ralston, 49, is a prepper -- or, more accurately, a "doomsday" prepper, one of a growing number of people for whom a pantry filled with canned food and bottled water is just the beginning. Fearing the end of days, be it from a massive earthquake to the eruption of a super volcano, they build bunkers, learn survival skills and, in some cases, assemble small arsenals for self-defense.

"I am not going to be the father who, when something happens, has to hear his kids say, 'Dad, I'm hungry.'" Ralston says. "My family comes first. I am going to do everything I can to keep them safe."

The trend toward extreme prepping -- just like possible end-of-the-world scenarios -- is easy to find when you look for it.

Hundreds of blogs and web-rings are devoted to surviving the ultimate catastrophe. Dozens of online stores cater to those looking for water-purification kits, dehydrated meals and bags of seeds that will allow them to start a small farm. And pop culture is right behind: Preppers are also the new darling of reality-television niche programming.

Booming business

Dennis McClung of Mesa, who turned his backyard pool into a greenhouse as part of his self-sustaining lifestyle, said more people than ever are readying for terrible days ahead. And that's been good for his business, 2012supplies.com, which sells everything you may need to increase your chances for survival in (extremely) difficult times.

"I believe that prepping is becoming mainstream," McClung said. "Despite the economy, the preparedness business is booming. I have witnessed a rise in sales firsthand with my business."

Costco also has issued its mainstream seal of approval to prepping. Featured in an e-mail to customers last week was a "disaster preparedness" package that includes a nine-month supply of food for four people and a portable power supply for $3,199.

Earlier this year the trend turned up on such cable reality shows as "Doomsday Preppers" and "Doomsday Bunkers." And even an investment group has gotten in on the act, referencing the Mayan calendar's prediction that Dec. 21, 2012, will be the end of the world -- while suggesting that we might need more savings if that turns out to be wrong.

"Doomsday Preppers" recently featured Ralston, their cameras following along as he browsed for just the right metal shipping container to serve as his future bunker. They also caught the scene minutes later, when Ralston and his two adolescent sons are in the remote desert, snapping off rifle rounds in tactical training (and leading to Ralston's most painful and embarrassing moment on the show, a misfire that ripped a chunk out of his thumb. He has since fully recovered, with most of his digit intact).

Zombie Squad

Let's be clear on this: The Zombie Squad, a nationwide group dedicated to survival in the wake of an undead invasion, does not really believe in zombies. Regrettable, but not to the point of negatively affecting membership. Which is booming, according to posts on its website (zombiehunters.org).

Part of its popularity has to do with the undead's wildly popular shuffle through pop culture, says member Joseph Wilson of Tucson, who joined the Arizona chapter of the Zombie Squad shortly after it started in 2009.

But behind it all is the Zombie Squad's official mission, which is not dedicated solely to the eradication of brain eaters.

According to the group's mission statement, members strive to educate others on the "importance of personal preparedness and self-reliance, to increase its readiness to respond to a number of disasters such as Earthquakes, Floods or Zombie Outbreaks."

The idea for the group rose from a 2003 discussion among friends in St. Louis who were debating the survivability of a zombie onslaught, like the one they had just seen in the horror film "28 Days Later." (The movie's answer: "Yes, but it gets ugly.")

Now with 42 chapters across the United States (as well as one each in Canada and western Europe), the Zombie Squad preaches the gospel of preparedness at various events and fundraisers. Most of its members, however, are merely prepared for hurricanes and earthquakes and such, disasters that might require them to sustain themselves for just weeks, not the months or years of their doomsday counterparts.

Wilson, for instance, has a bug-out bag ready to go in case of emergency. Within minutes, he and his wife can be on the road with enough food, equipment and camping gear for weeks at a time.

Anything longer, well, it just may not be worth it.

"The biggest thing you must have is a plan," Wilson says. "In case of a fire, we're gone, and quickly. Alien attack, we'll stay put and do the best we can.

"The 'prepping for the end of the world' stuff, no one realistically expects that to happen. But for natural disasters, being ready is going to give you a head start."

Zombie Squad member Jerrod Ayers of Mesa has a couple of real-life examples of the value of prepping, though neither involved the undead.

The first was a torrential downpour that contaminated the local water supply; the second was an ice storm during which his furnace went out and a repairman could not respond for two days. Ayers coped well each time, thanks to having the right supplies.

Prepping for doomsday is fine, even entertaining, Ayers says. But he is more down-to-earth. He has stockpiled food and water, and even has a few firearms, but he finds greater value in being skilled in more practical areas.

"We do not have a secret farm somewhere laden with supplies and an armory," Ayers says. "But if we have to bug out, we can take three weeks' worth of food, water and camping supplies in the bed of the 4x4 (vehicle) and live in the desert for a couple of weeks regardless of the season."

Should there be zombies, however, he'll also have his secret weapon -- "a super whiz-bang Barret .50 BMG sniper rifle." The perfect firearm for taking out a zombie from 100 yards or farther.

Ultimate doomsday tool

When facing the potential end of humanity, a person is going to need the right tool, one that can dig a hole, pry open a door, chop wood and eviscerate anyone who dares engage you in hand-to-hand combat.

Enter the Crovel (pronounced CROW-vul), which Tim Ralston invented more than two years ago when he combined the strengths of a crowbar and a shovel. In all his years of prepping, he considers the tool his crowning achievement.

It's a survivalist scepter with a point (and not just the sharpened metal tip on the top of the Crovel, called a "zombie spike" because Ralston knows how to market in tough, if not the end of, times). The Crovel is several tools in one, including saw, hatchet, pry bar and close-combat weapon.

The best doomsday tools are those with multiple uses, Ralston says. (If necessity is the mother of invention, the approaching apocalypse is the irksome brother-in-law looking over your shoulder, telling you to make the thing compact and useful.)

Disappointed in the quality of shovels at hardware stores, not to mention the relative paucity of crowbars, Ralston took it upon himself to meld the two using heavy-duty steel. The shovel part has a serrated edge on one side and a knife-edge on the other.

After adding a pry bar on the opposite end (the spike would come later), Ralston now had a shovel that broke new ground. When his 30 handmade prototypes sold out at a local gun show in 2009, he knew he'd struck gold.

The Crovel -- now manufactured in a Phoenix factory -- is the $109.99 centerpiece of the Gear Up Center (Gearup Center), an online store for preppers birthed by Ralston's inventions. The even more-serious survivalist can add the Crovel Cover for $24.95, or the $24.50 "Z-Spike." And yes, Z is for zombie. Note: Due to Ralston's appearance on "Doomsday Preppers," his business has exploded, and Crovels are backordered for weeks. And no, should the world end before then, there will be no refunds.

The inventory packs Ralston's garage, leaving room only for a workbench (he still tinkers with the apocalypse in mind) and his family's bug-out trailer.

Helping others prepare for a global catastrophe pays the bills, but Ralston believes it is just as important to educate and illuminate. The more people ready to face doomsday, he figures, the fewer who will come knocking at his bunker (and those of others) looking for food and water.

And that day could arrive next year, Ralston says, riding a coronal mass ejection (which is even sloppier than it sounds) that triggers an electromagnetic pulse when speeding solar particles hit the Earth's atmosphere. That pulse could knock out our electrical grid and cause almost instant chaos.

"At first people thought I was nuts; even my wife thought I was going overboard," says Ralston, recalling how he stockpiled items prior to Y2K. "I don't get that anymore. A lot of people are interested in prepping and want help. They want to know the best way to do it."

Ralston's bunker mentality has its roots in childhood visits to his grandparents' farm in Colorado. At the time, he just liked the lifestyle, but later he was struck by the importance of his grandparents' self-sufficiency. And when Ralston was 12, he and his father witnessed an accident during a trail ride in the Rocky Mountain wilderness.

Ralston can still see his father jumping off his horse and into the fray just moments after a horse reared, sending itself and its rider tumbling down a rocky slope.

"Everyone else seemed paralyzed, but my father started throwing around orders, getting everyone to bring their first-aid kits, and asking others to take off their shirts for bandages," Ralston says. "That was my dad. He was ready for anything. He probably saved that woman's life."

His years in the Air Force honed Ralston's survival skills. When Y2K approached, he was determined to be ready should the world's computers shut down (though society ended up just fine at 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2000). But it was after 9/11 that Ralston became even more focused; that day turned even his wife, Marie, into a believer.

Each night he spends time with books or online trying to learn at least one new thing that will help him survive. Recently he plunked down $3,200 for a 40-foot storage container, which is now being assembled. When it is finished, it will be reinforced by Ralston and the five other members of his prepper group (a team that includes a doctor and mechanic, because Ralston wants to hunker down with people who have skills he lacks).

If all goes as planned, the group's three storage containers will be buried on land he owns north of Phoenix and stocked with two years' worth of provisions and supplies.

Those will include the obvious (water purifiers, tools, dehydrated and canned foods with a shelf life of 25-plus years) and the not-so-obvious (baby wipes, plastic shopping bags for the portable toilet, and Ralston's favorite post-apocalyptic item, the ShamWow, a super-absorbent towel good for nearly anything from hygiene to soaking up morning dew. "People tend to underestimate the ShamWow").

Ralston also will pack a Crovel, or two, or more. Not only can it saw branches or behead a zombie, you can flip down the blade and use it as a chair. The perfect thing when you need a doomsday breather.

Fear-mongering?

Lisa Bedford considers herself a turtle in the disaster-prepping race. Slowly, steadily, the Peoria mom has amassed the food, water and equipment necessary to deal with a disaster -- not the "asteroid strikes Earth" kind, necessarily, but the sort that might force the family to live on their own for weeks and months.

Bedford is a calmer survivalist, cringing when she hears of people talking about super volcanoes or nuclear attacks or melting polar ice caps and the global flooding that will result.

"It (doomsday prepping) seems to hinge on fear-mongering," Bedford says. "At the core, I believe it's about common sense and an awareness of what's going on worldwide, not just in America."

Prepping is not limited to natural disasters, Bedford said. It's also about paying down debt and putting away money in case of long-term unemployment. Certainly survival plays a part, and the author of "Survival Mom: How to Prepare Your Family for Everyday Disasters and Worst-Case Scenarios" has a gun and knows how to use it.

Her fears are more down-to-earth than those buried 3 feet under in a bunker. Should economic jitters give way to strife and panic, she will be ready. And if the doomsday scenarios pitched by extreme preppers make people more apt to stockpile necessities, so be it.

"Yes, the shows are fear-mongering," Bedford says. "But they also raise awareness. If it gets people thinking they should be better prepared, so be it."

Fear fueled modern America's first obsession with hunkering down and waiting for the worst. The homes of the late 1950s and '60s touted the conveniences of an advanced society, from the latest appliances in the kitchen to stylish, space-age cars in the garage.

But the coolest dads installed underground fallout shelters, which for kids was even better than having tree forts. The lead-and-concrete bunkers were all the rage, no more so than during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis when President Kennedy stood toe-to-nuclear-toe with the Soviets.

Over the next few decades, those shelters (whether in backyards or community centers) gradually disappeared, turning into relics of a lost age when the Cold War effectively came to an end in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

For some Americans, however, paranoia is as much a national pastime as baseball, skipping from one situation to the next: nuclear fallout, or Y2K, or 9/11, or worse.
Cody Lundin of Prescott is someone who knows well the cyclic trends of prepping.

When Lundin began preaching the value of self-reliance almost 30 years ago -- whether surviving for weeks in the woods or living off the grid -- he was a voice in the wilderness. He turned his beliefs into a business in 1991 as the Aboriginal Living Skills School. Since then, he's taught thousands of people how to endure the roughest conditions.

But Lundin is having a difficult time bearing all the doomsday-prepper chatter. He shakes his head at the extremism espoused by those who want to store mountains of food and an arsenal of guns in a remote bunker.

"If your survival intentions are spurred by a knee-jerk reaction to fear, you're screwed," Lundin said. "Your lifestyle will be s--- unless you learn to live in harmony with others."

He believes in self-reliance, practiced by Americans in a simpler time when folks canned and pickled the extra from their gardens, storing everything in root cellars.

But pushing "survival at all costs" over a rule we all learned as kids -- "share with others" -- sends the wrong message, Lundin says.

"This country sucks at preparing for problems," he says. "Whether it's cyclones, earthquakes, whatever. I'm happy there is a prepper movement out there, but I hope it results in some enduring sanity and not just knee-jerk reactions."

Still prepping

Ralston has now spent more than a decade, and tens of thousands of dollars, preparing for the worst, and he's still not ready -- at least not as ready as he thinks he should be.

That year's supply of food he's put away? That needs to be doubled. There is still much to be done on the bunker. Then he needs to bury it, after figuring out how deep it must be to resist the effects of an electromagnetic pulse.

Then there's the EMP's possible effects at home. If it is as powerful as Ralston expects it to be, it will render his vehicles useless. With the bunker incomplete and his supply-filled bug-out trailer parked in his garage, an EMP could trap his family in the one place they would rather not be -- the midst of an urban center.

But this is the guy who combined a shovel and crowbar. Ralston has contingency plans.

Before the summer is out he plans to have two quad vehicles, disassembled and thus easily protected from damaging electromagnetic surges. Parts will be placed in such a way as to require no more than 20 minutes to assemble. With two people per quad, and the fifth family member riding in a small trailer (and holding Rocky, the lap-size family dog), they will be off in compact, maneuverable vehicles that will be able to wend their way through any traffic jam.

If all goes well (for the Ralstons, if not society in general), they will arrive at their bunker in a few hours, taking one of several routes that have been previously mapped out. And there, the family will meet up with the handful of other people on the planet who knew where the bunker was buried.

Yet the one thing Ralston most hopes for is that his years of planning, and all the money he's spent, will have been unnecessary.

"I want to enjoy life," Ralston says. "I want to see my kids go to college. I want to see more of the world. I never want to see doomsday come.

"But if it does, I am going to be ready."

Reach the reporter at scott.craven@arizonarepublic.com.

'Preppers' stockpile food, arms, tools to ensure survival at a doomsday's notice

First Things First: Key Questions Facing The Beginning Prepper

Norse Prepper
May 16th, 2012
SHTFplan
Comments (232)
Read by 9,250 people


The following article has been generously contributed by Norse Prepper.

SHTFplan Editor’s Note: While there may be three million Americans preparing for a paradigm shift which promises to change our very way of life, that leaves roughly 99% of our population that has failed to take any serious steps to insulate themselves from catastrophe. Earlier this week we asked “How Horrific Will It Be For the Non-Prepper?”, in which we detailed the disastrous consequences that await those who will get blindsided by a widespread natural or man-made disaster. Hopefully, that article will be enough to convince some “non-preppers” to start putting their well-being into their own hands by developing personal and familial preparedness and response plans for far-from-equilibrium scenarios that may strike at anytime.

As Norse Prepper points out in the article below, one of the key motivators for ramping up your personal larder, supplies and skill sets is to avoid ever putting yourself and family into a situation where you are left with no choice but to tell your loved ones that you’re, “going to get us some food and will return with it or die trying.” In a scenario like that your odds of survival diminish significantly.

If you’ve turned the corner, or been ‘awakened’ as we like to say in alternative media, then the notion that the system as we have come to know it could fall apart around us without warning can be very overwhelming at first. So, too, is the daunting task of determining what steps to take next and how to go about creating your own personal preparedness plan to shield you from whatever may befall us.

The following questions, suggestions, considerations, and topics of discussion are a primer for those who have chosen to take control of their personal safety and security, and may help to point beginning preppers in the right direction.

---

First Things First: Key Questions Facing The Beginning Prepper
by Norse Prepper

Inspired by the article regarding how horrific it’s going to get for the non prepper, I thought I might also submit the following article on what it is like to be a new prepper. The purpose of this article is not to tell my story, but to give perspective on how overwhelming it was for me as a beginning prepper.
With the amount of knowledge that readers at this website display, what could I possibly add?

My answer to that is perspective.

Many on this site and others have been preparing for years and are prepared. I know one of the first replies will be that you can never be fully prepared and it’s a journey more than a destination and I subscribe to that 100%. I personally will never be done prepping. One thing that I have found in my years of work is that after someone has done something for some time, it’s hard to remember what it was like in the beginning. I work in an engineering field and things that are very simple and seem like basics can be complicated and not easily understood by someone who is new in their engineering career. Hopefully this article takes you back to when you first began prepping and helps you relate to us newbies.

Think back to when you first felt the tugging of something in the back of your mind leading you to do more research and eventually coming to the conclusion that you must become a prepper. It may have been as blunt as a Katrina event, or possibly it was just little things here and there that eventually and gradually led you to where you are at today. Regardless of the journey, I believe it to be important to remember your roots and by doing so you will be more armed to help other people to come in to the light of what is going on in the world around us and help them get more prepared.

How I was first awoken from my state of unpreparedness was when I watched the End of America video produced by Porter Stansberry. What I saw scared the heck out of me and after watching what he had to say and showing the facts of our economic system, I went from being a SHTF ostrich with my head in the sand, to fearful that time is running out for our country as we know it. Even after seeing the End of America video, I still wasn’t aware of what it was to be a prepper. I focused more on investing in silver and things like that to hedge against the coming hyperinflation. It wasn’t until about six months ago that I came across the term prepper and dug in to see what this movement was about and frankly, I found it extremely overwhelming.
Below is my top ten list of the thousand questions that came flooding in to my head upon my awakening as well as what I am doing to answer these questions. I believe these are all questions that every new prepper should answer as fast as possible and take steps to prepare for immediately.

1. What am I preparing for?
   I needed to identify what it is that I’m going to try to protect myself from. If I was going to prepare for a one week loss of power in a winter storm then there isn’t much to prepare for. If I am preparing for a global collapse of the financial system or EMP that would send us back to the early 1800’s I’ve got some work to do. At a minimum I would suggest that new preppers start with a plan for being self reliant for 3 months. By the time you are prepared for this, you will have learned much and can then set out on whatever your phase II duration will be. I live in a northern climate with harsh winters so my phase I goal is to be prepared for six months. Personally, I am still in this stage of prepping, but phase II will be for preparing for a multi-year grid down scenario.
2. Am I going to bug in or bug out?
   I agree with the opinion that bugging out should only be considered if you have somewhere to go. Heading out to the woods is not an option unless you are trained in surviving under these conditions. I’ve got a wife and three kids, heading to the woods is not an option for me. If you are going to bug out, it needs to be earlier in the collapse rather than later or you will find yourself stuck at a road block. Read the book One Second After for a detailed description of what happens to refugees attempting to flee to already starving communities. Personally, I have chosen to bug-in. It is where my preps are located as well as familiar neighbors.
3. Can I defend my family, property and preps?
   Let’s face it, when the SHTF, my preps will be viewed as “their” preps to the golden hoard. Is a stranger more likely to watch their children starve or are they more likely to tell their wife “I’m going to get us some food and will return with it or die trying.” The prepared need to ask a different question. When they arrive at my doorstep, what will I do? Will I give them some of my preps as charity? Every meal I give out gets me closer to the time when I will be telling our family, as I head out the door, “I’m going to get us some food and will return with it or die trying.” This is a huge decision to make because we need to have resolve in our minds what we are going to do when this day comes. In a SHTF situation there can be no indecisiveness. I won’t go in to any detail on how to defend yourself as there are novels of information on this subject. I believe a defense plan is more important than a food plan because if you can’t defend it you might as well not have it.
4. Do I have enough to feed my family until order is restored?
   That is assuming order will be restored. Personally, if it gets as bad as it can, I do believe eventually a new nation or nations will form and there will again be public services. I had to figure out what my comfort level is for the amount of time that I will need to eat from my preps, supplemented by gardens, hunting, fishing…etc.
5. How will I heat my home?
   Since my plan is to bug-in in a northern climate, I need to figure out how I will heat my home. I live in suburbia and it scares me to see that relatively few people have wood burning…anything. I have a fireplace in my house and will secure enough firewood this summer to heat my house for two winters. All of my neighbors depend on electrical or natural gas for heat. I personally have seen the temperature in my location get to -60 degrees below zero with a wind chill of over 100 below. Many in my surrounding area will die of exposure unless they can be in my living room. I honestly don’t know the answer to the question of what will I do when people in my area are freezing and there is smoke coming out of my chimney. Anyone who has driven past a house burning wood in the winter knows it is fairly impossible to not alert people to a nearby source of heat. To me, this poses one of my greatest threats. Suggestions here would be helpful.
6. How will I keep clean?
   Personal hygiene will be a huge issue in a SHTF scenario. I realized quickly that I need to stock up on toothpaste, TP, laundry/dish/hand soaps, medical supplies, and everything else needed to keep sanitary conditions in an unsanitary world. I made lists of lists of all of the things I will need. [Lists and more lists]
7. How will I provide light and electricity?
   In an EOTWAWKI situation having some rechargeable batteries to use will be a luxury that we currently take for granted. I plan on getting a stockpile of rechargeable batteries and solar equipment. I have a basement with a sump pump, when the grid goes down what will keep my basement from getting inundated with groundwater? I picked up a secondary battery powered sump pump that runs off of a deep cycle battery. Solar rechargers can be purchased to ensure that the batteries can be kept charged. How great would it be to be able to watch a movie on a laptop? With respect to light, when there is no power, it will be very dark. Children (and some adults) can get spooked easily when there is 14 hours of darkness per day in the winter. I am going to stock some solar powered garden lights. These can be placed in the light during the day and provide for a night light during the hours of darkness. Radios, flashlights and other things can be hand cranked for power. Anything that is sustainable and will produce light or energy will become extremely valuable.
8. How will I keep up on information and communicate with the outside world?
   Obviously my TV will become useless. Who knows if there will be radio stations transmitting, and if they are, what is the source of the information? Personally I plan on eventually getting a HAM radio and learning the trade. I believe this will be the best information available as it will probably be filled with info from other preppers in the nation.
9. What do I have to offer others?
   In a collapsed society, skills, knowledge and items for trade will pay off in a huge way. The only thing that will help me acquire supplies that I don’t have or want will be the ability to offer something to someone who has it and they find the value of my goods or services to be more than what they have. If they don’t, then they will not be willing to trade. I have personally chosen to stock up on more of the convenience things for these situations. I plan on stockpiling coffee and lighters. People will trade for a hot cup of coffee and from my perspective, coffee is a convenience. People will need to be able to start a fire for cooking or heating their homes and a source of fire will be invaluable in a SHTF scenario. Personally I won’t be bartering away guns or ammunition because the person who I just armed would also realize that if I can spare these essential items I probably have other essential items and now they have a way to get them from me.
10. How will I fight off boredom?
    One thing that has haunted me is when the SHTF, how can I pass the time without going completely stir crazy? Obviously, there will be many chores and a lot of labor involved in daily life after a collapse, but there will also be hours upon hours of sitting in a quiet house. My kids will be involved in chores of the day, but what can I do to reduce the monotony of a grid down situation? I plan on stockpiling books on many different subjects. Fiction and nonfiction. How to’s and stories. A bow and arrow can provide hours of target practice as well as developing a survival skill. Decks of cards can provide entertainment as well as bartering potential. If you go to a casino, you can get decks of cards for 50 cents. Puzzles, board games, pads of paper and plenty of writing utensils. Anything that can hopefully make life more fun for the family to escape reality, even for a moment. Don’t forget the most important book of them all, the Bible.
11. How do I pay for all of this?
    OK, I know I said top 10, but this question needs to be taken care of pre-SHTF where as my top 10 deal with issues post-SHTF. Most are living paycheck to paycheck, so how can preps be paid for when we are in survival mode? My plan is to sell off anything that I don’t feel is necessary. Have a garage sale and go to garage sales – you would be amazed at what you will find. I recently found three oil lamps for 50 cents each! Sell things on Ebay and Craigslist. Get a second job and dedicate all income from it to preps. Don’t worry, if the SHTF doesn’t happen and you are prepped, you can always go back and replace these items, but get prepared first. I would rather have a stocked supply room than shares of Google.

What am I preparing for? Will I bug in or bug out? How will I defend myself, family and home? What will I eat? How will I heat my home? How will I keep clean? How will I produce light and electricity? How will I get information and communicate with the outside world? What skills do I have and items can I use to barter? How will I fight off boredom? These are but the tip of the iceberg of questions needing to be answered for when life as we know it comes to an end. When talking to and dealing with anyone new to prepping, please remember that they are entering a large and complex world where their decisions on what to do next could mean the difference between life and death. Help them to make a list of priorities and offer them advice on what the list should contain. This article is just a primer, but is more than what 99% of people have done to prepare themselves and their families for what is coming.

Also, please let me say thank you to Mac, the contributors and people who comment on the SHTFplan web site for helping me and my family prepare. You truly are today’s patriots. God bless.

Norse Prepper

First Things First: Key Questions Facing The Beginning Prepper

The Top 50 Excuses For Not Prepping

May 20th, 2012

With the way that things are heading in this country, it is not surprising that there are approximately 3 million preppers in the United States today. What is surprising is that there are not more people prepping. The economy is rapidly falling to pieces, the national debt is absolutely soaring, the earth is becoming increasingly unstable, a major war could erupt in the Middle East at any time and the fabric of our society is coming apart right in front of our eyes.

We have become incredibly dependent on technology and we have become incredibly dependent on our economic system. If a major natural disaster, a killer pandemic, an EMP attack or the imposition of martial law caused a significant transportation disruption, America would literally change overnight. We live during a time of tremendous global instability, and yet most people still see no need to start prepping at all. Most people just continue to have blind faith in our leaders and in our system. But what happens if our leaders fail us? What happens if our system collapses? What are they going to do then?

The number of preppers in the United States today is steadily increasing, but the vast majority of people out there still see no reason to start getting ready for "the end of the world as we know it". Most people just assume that things will always somehow get better or that they will somehow be immune to whatever calamities are heading our way. Most people always seem to have a "good excuse" for why they do not need to prepare.

The following are the top 50 excuses for not prepping....

1. "The U.S. Economy Is The Greatest Economy On The Planet - There Is No Way That It Could Ever Collapse"

2. "Once Barack Obama Wins The Election Everything Will Be Better"

3. "Once Mitt Romney Wins The Election Everything Will Be Better"

4. "When Things Get Really Bad The Government Will Take Care Of Us"

5. "When Disaster Strikes I Will Just Steal From Everyone Else That Has Been Busy Preparing"

6. "The Rapture Will Be At Any Moment So I Don't Have To Worry About Prepping"

7. "The Economy Has Always Recovered After Every Recession In The Past And This Time Will Be No Different"

8. "The People That Are Running Things Are Very Highly Educated And They Know Exactly What They Are Doing"

9. "Wal-Mart Will Always Be There"

10. "Our Politicians Are Watching Out For Our Best Interests"

11. "The 2012 Apocalypse Is Almost Here And We Are All Doomed Anyway - So Why Even Try?"

12. "Preppers Do Not Have A Positive Mental Attitude"

13. "If An Economic Collapse Comes I Will Just Go On Welfare"

14. "There Are Some Things You Just Can't Prepare For"

15. "Prepping Is Too Expensive"

16. "We Are Not Like Other Countries - U.S. Cities Are Designed To Withstand Major Earthquakes"

17. "I Need To Save Up For Retirement Instead"

18. "The Stock Market Has Been Soaring So Why Worry?"

19. "I Don't Have Room To Store Anything"

20. "Prepping Is For Crazy People"

21. "I Don't Believe In Conspiracy Theories"

22. "All The Food I Store Is Going To Go Bad"

23. "I Would Rather Spend My Time Watching American Idol"

24. "All The People Who Freaked Out About Y2K Look Really Foolish Now, Don't They?"

25. "I Don't Want To Look Like Those Idiots On 'Doomsday Preppers'"

26. "An EMP Attack Could Never Happen"

27. "There Will Never Be A Nationwide Transportation Disruption In The United States"

28. "Instead Of Being So Paranoid, I Would Rather Just Enjoy Life"

29. "If Society Falls Apart I Wouldn't Want To Continue To Live Anyway"

30. "There Will Never Be Another World War"

31. "I'm Too Lazy To Grow A Garden"

32. "If You Assume The Worst Is Going To Happen Then You Don't Believe In America"

33. "Deficits Don't Matter"

34. "I'll Always Be Able To Get A Job In My Field"

35. "If There Is A Financial Collapse All Of My Debts Will Be Wiped Out So I Might As Well Live It Up Now"

36. "If Things Hit The Fan I Will Just Go Move In With My Relatives Who Have Been Busy Prepping"

37. "Those That Believe That There Will Be Massive Riots In American Cities Someday Are Just Being Delusional"

38. "My Spouse Would Think That I Have Finally Lost It"

39. "I Don't Know Where To Start"

40. "I'll Just Deal With Problems As They Arrive"

41. "I Don't Have To Prepare For A Natural Disaster - That Is What FEMA Is For"

42. "We'll Never See Martial Law In The United States"

43. "I Don't Want To Scare My Children"

44. "Once I Get Rid Of All My Debt Then I Will Start Thinking About Prepping"

45. "My Relatives Already Think That I Am A Nut Job - I Don't Need To Make It Any Worse"

46. "If People At Work Find Out That I Am Prepping It Could Hurt My Career"

47. "If There Really Was A Good Reason To Prepare They Would Tell Us About It On The News"

48. "People Have Been Predicting Doom And Gloom For Years And It Hasn't Happened Yet"

49. "The United States Is The Greatest Nation On Earth - There Is No Way That It Could Collapse"

50. "I Don't Plan On Becoming A Card Carrying Member Of The Tin Foil Hat Brigade"



The Top 50 Excuses For Not Prepping

Top Gun 5 Most Important Personal Firearms

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Fun Gun Reviews Presents: Top Gun: 5 Most Important. If I could only own 5 guns, this is a list of the top five. Inspired by my friend Artisantony, who is running a contest for the best "Top 5" gun video, I thought I'd weigh in with my favorites.

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Bug Out Weapons Bag

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Ammo Required : Having Enough Ammunition

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Fun Gun Gear Reviews Presents: "Ammo Required" Ammo is a key element in protecting your preps. Don't skimp on your ammo supply. Have enough ammo to be effective in a WROL / SHTF situation, otherwise, you have an expensive paperweight! Ammo prices are continuing to rise.

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