Guys, I’m sick and tired of the Bug Out Bag and Bug Out Vehicle posts. Do you know why? Because you don’t have a Destination and a Plan on how to get there.
If you don’t have those two things… Your Bug Out Preps are utterly useless. You are prepping for Failure.
Do you have a Destination? Is that Destination prepared and ready to receive you? Do you need to make any stop to pick anyone else up on the way? Okay, where will that person be if they are not at home or work? What’s your Plan B? Do they need help in their Preps so when you do come in for a Dust Off, are they going to be ready to go?
What’s your Route to your Destination? What if there is a Road Block at various choke points on that route? What’s your alternative route? Be it road closures from MIL/LEO or Natural Disasters, such as flooding or snow… You need to plan your route according to your capability.
Do a Dry Run on your Bug Out Plan. Load your Shit up like it’s Real and Roll out. How are you going to load everything you are bringing? Do you have ROOM for everything and everyone you are bringing? All your Ammo. All your Food. All your Water. Any Meds. And whatever else it is that you can’t live without. Can you get it all in your cool little Jeep? Do you need a Trailer? Can you actually pull your trailer on your route?
If you don’t have answers to these questions, you’ve not prepped for shit. You might have a nice Day Pack and Load Out and a Trauma Kit… But you are not ready to Bug Out. You are not Prepped.
Agreed. And never forget to leave room for Murphy’s Law in that bag somewhere. That said, I like the fact that most people actually get started thinking about prepping by dipping their toe in the water with the Bug Out Bag. I think of it in terms of a security blanket. People either get serious about it and ask the questions you pose and run their own scenarios or they don’t – in which case you can pick up a nice bag on the cheap at their garage sale.
You’re right. And the simple truth is that there aren’t enough destinations to go around.
Working as a field biologist I’m lucky to have some pretty good spots. One in particular is vast and largely unknown. There’s probably a handful a people who visit it every year and few accurate maps (most of which I made). Doesn’t hurt that it’s only a short afternoon’s drive from where I live. Plus it’s stocked with gear and equipment that most survivalists don’t even know exists.
Then again, I’ve given almost zero thought to which tacticool vest I’m buying and what load bearing equipment is *The Best*. Whoops, guess I’d better get back to my armchair!
Hey Mad,
It is not about going to a specific destination. It is about getting out of a fixed position where you will be out numbered, out gunned, and cut off from escape. I can do more in my car with a bug out bag, guns, and ammo than anybody can in a fixed position.
Jim T
If you are leaving your safe zone with the idea of returning, that’s one thing. And the whole “Going up into the Mountains” thing – isn’t going to work when everyone else has the very same idea.
So again, I ask you. Where are you going?
If you feel the need to leave your location, then it is no longer a safe zone but a ambush waiting to happen. There is always an opporunity to hide in plain sight(“gray man”). Here are the main questions that need to be asked.
1. What is the real (not imagined) situation, i.e. are the police going door to door collecting guns?
2. Are you on the radar to be affected.
3. Is your safety or your families safety at risk?
4. How “BAD” do you need to hide. What are you willing to do to stay out of sight.
As long as we talk about this topic merely as a mind game we will not take this topic as serious as we need to.
Foe example, if you carry a gun on a daily basis you should use targets with life like pictures on them. If you carry a gun you should visualize shooting a human being often in your mind. Both of these mind excersizes help you to perform when and if the time comes when you have to use your weapon.
If I have to bug out, then all the rules are gone. Finding a hiding place at that time will be merely living by the law of conquest. I am not talking about hurting innocents but with that mind hiding places do become easier to find.
Just think, the American revolution started for less than what is going on today in America.
That’s what I was thinking. No matter where you go, chances are that some others are already there. To be effective, you’d have to leave far enough in advance that you would just be leaving not “bugging out”. And what will you do for transportation? There are lots of stories about people leaving too late and spending the storm in their cars – at night – in a traffic jam. During one hurricane some years ago, people left the Miami area enmasse and ran out of gas in Fort Pierce.
I like the bug-out-bag as a kind of show and tell to start talking with people about the idea of becoming more prepared. For me the idea of a BOB is that you need to leave your house. RIGHT NOW! RUN! You have no time to pack, you don’t know where you’re going, and you’re not sure when or if you can come home.
A decent flashlight, a AM/FM radio, spare batteries for both, some water, some kind of shelf stable food, some fire materials, a decent knife, a first aid kit (with extra Benadryl and Pepto) a poncho, maybe a tarp or an extra jacket, and so on should be useful no mater what’s happening. Then people realize that 25-30 pounds of stuff is a lot for us average cake eaters to be carrying around on our backs, so maybe bugging in is your best choice? And worst case you spent $50 or $75 your future self might mightily thank you for.
I live down in south GA, and as a kid we evacuated for hurricane Floyd. We left our house thinking we’d be in Atlanta in a few hours, maybe stop for fast food half way there, nothing to worry about. We packed our valuables, documents, some clothes and pets, and never thought to bring blankets and flashlights and most importantly food and water. We sat in traffic for 14 hours the first day and ended up less than 50 miles from home. I’ll never forget walking into a gas station that had sold out of literarily EVERYTHING. We didn’t eat the first day, and slept in our cars in a parking lot. The next two days we stayed at a national guard armory, and then were finally able to go home. Hurricane Floyd never came, but we also never made it to Atlanta. Luckily my brothers and I were old enough to understand what was happening, but I can’t image what it must have been like for my parents on the first day to think “We have nothing to feed our kids?” A bug-out-bag is everything I wish I would have had with me when we evacuated.
You make a good point. We were evacuated from our ranch in Utah due to the North Neola fire. But we had a destination and a route planned.
Kinda got to practice that thought-experiment last summer, twice. First with the Sand Ridge Fire, and later when the Rim Fire hit. Good gosh, can’t go that way because it’s BURNING, and can’t go running up to that “wilderness” area because it’s already FULL OF PEOPLE! And the “wilderness” behind it is also full of people – people who got there a while ago and don’t want any visitors and already have lots of guns. There’s nowhere we can get to where there’s nobody, and we’re up in the hills already. As far as I can tell the best BOB plan is a fist full of high-limit credit cards and two tickets to Tahiti. I wouldn’t go down to the coast that’s for sure.
Well there went my opsec…. Wasn’t planning on posting my real name.
I deleted the earlier comment for OPSEC reasons. Go ahead and re-post your statement and questions.
First off Ogre thanks for that. Well, I have been prepping for the past few years, small time and very low key. I like most people have limited financial resources to plan for the ultimate preps or a location to go too. I am a transplant to SE USA with no family anywhere close to team up with if something happened. So with this being said, I realize the times are coming which is going to be rough for all of us. I have been able to put away some preps for my small family for a limited amount of time. I know enough that if I had to bug out to a location I would end up being a refugee, a minimally supplied one, but in reality a refugee. I know I could bug in for a limited time but if it got to hairy, I would be forced to relocate. What keeps me up at night is trying to find out to where to go, much like this blog mentions. I have looked into finding a tribe of like minded individuals, but so far only run into idiots, mall ninjas and those who hint about doing things like becoming the horde. So my question is, how or what is a good source to find like minded individuals who are not wackos? Again I realize that just having a few supplies and preps is not going to cut it in the event things go sideways. for long term, a group tribe or location has to be networked. I’m just looking for some ideas that I might have overlooked. I have tried to connect locally with neighbors, albeit covertly, but not much in the ways of trustable people.