INCH Bag

I am not an expert, nor did I stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night.

The instant you "bug out" without a known viable destination in mind, you are simply a refugee....likely unwelcome just about anywhere your travels may take you. The only thing of any real value to you will be your skills and knowledge. Everything else can be lost, stolen, broken, or otherwise rendered unusable.

Because your real knife got lost/broken/stolen....or you're just allowing for the worst possible circumstance as would be prudent given a situation bad enough that you must leave food/shelter/etc. behind?

 

It is not a matter of planning to have to improvise, It is the capability of having the skills to improvise.
If you plan to grow a garden post SHTF, and have no experience doing it, purely working on assumption , your going yo starve to death.
I have had many failures in gardening and still learning . I never knew there was so much involved .
So if you don't know how to make gold from lead , don't tell any one you can, especially your self.
Things you see on your tube come from practice and there are often details that the person demonstrating is taking for granted from his viewers. it takes a lot of practice in one's own and that in not so perfect conditions ,to actually get a skill down.

Having map and compass is good but knowing the territory one is going into is very helpful, problem is there are a lot of other folks that plan on bugging out to the woods as well, and some of them may not be civil.
Your favorite spot may well be some one else's too.

 

There are not enough of us locals to keep all the hundreds of thousands of potential outsiders from the thousands of acres of farmland and woods we inhabit. We are too few and our homes are too spread out for any meaningful common defense. Best we can do is split up and consolidate into smaller, defensible areas and pray.

No bugging out for us...other than perhaps a short-term tactical withdrawal. As long as we have our lives and our health...and the hoards move on at some point...we can return and rebuild...rinsing and repeating as necessary. We're going to die here, preferably of old age.

 

Yes there is difference as Broker has pointed out. Never coming home is to me more like a scavenging pack not bug out. Break in tools, Long term water filters, things like salt and fire starter, Lots of ammo but I would not start right out carrying some big caliber rifle and even my AR would be left behind as I just would not have enough room for the ammo. .22 rifle and hand gun 2000 rounds. .

 

@TailorMadeHell
Any area can support only so many people.

Your original post mentioned the Ranger Handbook. If it is the same small book I purchased at a gun show; it offers very little value added. I'd rather carry its weight in band-aids and Neosporin.

 

You can carry the complete us army survival guide in app form on your phone or tablet. I do.

 

@kellory
21-76 or 3-05.70? Most of them are quite generic; whereas we all live in specific areas.

No, I don't; however, I am quite good with edible and medicinal plants in my area.

 

21-11, 21-76, and a couple others. They weigh nothing more than I am already carrying.

 

@kellory
No 31-210, 5-31 or 12-43 etc? Mighty dry reading,

Books on edible and medicinal plants in your AO would be more beneficial.

 

As I said"among others". (It's a new phone, and not well organized yet. Eventually all similar apps will be in folders for easy look ups) all ham stuff is in one folder now.

 

@kellory
I passed the classes and was OJT also.

 

Like I said earlier you need to know the area your hoping to move into , and do some prep there by growing food producing bushes and trees if possible .
Mind you , you may have to fight for them in the end, but if they are living and thriving, they are a food source.
If the perimeter is surrounded by poisonous plants ,you can create a barrier for humans ,not so much for animals .
If animals discover it , it's good . a food source for them may improve their reproduction, and that's a good thing.

 

we talked about natural fencing on another thread
Rural Fencing to keep critters in...and out | Survival Monkey Forums

 

Y'all need to stay where you are; us country folks don't need a swarm of human locusts to kill off all the game, fish out the creeks or ponds and eat everything in sight. Then, after the land is barren, move on to the next location. That may sound cold; however, when I worked, I drove 40 miles one way to live here. She drove almost as far.

 

In other words, move here and become a member of the community or stay home. Just cuz you bought some land and/or a house here doesn't automagically make you a member of the community. I remember when Ted Turner and Jane Fonda bought the Vermejo Park Ranch...they never could understand why they were not just accepted as part of the community by many when they only showed their faces once in a blue moon.

 

@chimo
We have neighbors who stay here, go south and up north. I believe they started doing that after they retired. Nice people. He used to have a lot of grapes and made wine.

My concern is people showing up and setting up. What we have here would work for all of us; however, it is fragile.

I'd guess her being Hanoi Jane might have contributed also.

 

that and they are self proclaimed 'environmentalists' but blew out half of a mountain to build a home. The inconsistencies pretty much did it.

I was down at the ranch in Truth or Consequences several years ago and Ted couldn't understand why the local backhoe guy wouldn't put his quail water's in before the local septic tank installations. Ted was paying double dontcha know!

I suspect attitude had as much to do with their problems as lack of proximity.

 

+1.

 

Contrary to what some might believe; no fixed position cannot be taken. They can lay down all the blah, blah, blah, they please and only be kidding themselves.

However, once any group would force us to leave; they will learn, day or night, to stay out of sight.