Prepper -'lite' or full on survivalist

[Frnc]

I do have a BOB, but it's mainly intended for enforced evacuation or for partnering my BOV (only if I'm desperate). The BOV is good for about 5 reasonably comfortable but boring days. From what I can find out, a decision needs to be taken in the first 18 to 30 hours when bugging out from a city, depending on circumstances. Later, roads are likely to become blocked and dangerous places.

Yes the roads are likely to get gridlocked. Can you carry your gear if necessary? Making an early decision is a tricky one, but if the authorities say you must evacuate, it's made for you. It then depends on whether they've told you to go to a specific place. If not, maybe they told you which direction to go in, or where to avoid. I live on the edge of a city, but the quickest way out is in the direction of a an industrial area with a power station, chemical plants etc. In fact a few weeks ago there was a major incident as hazardous chemical leaked from a chemical plant, or a tanker at it. 12 fire engines were sent. One person was hospitalised from the vapour.

[PPrep]

Yes the roads are likely to get gridlocked. Can you carry your gear if necessary? Making an early decision is a tricky one, but if the authorities say you must evacuate, it's made for you.

I can't carry the gear far at all; for me it would have to be totally desperate to bug out on foot at my age. I would only last a day or two before things got really bad, depending on the weather and time of year even though the gear is carefully chosen. I live in a semi - urban (or semi - rural) environment but have nowhere "comfortable" to bug out to.

[jansman]

Full on Survivalists-Wow. Aren’t we all anyway? We get born,we learn,we earn,we get a place to live,some of us have children ,and life will carry on. As is the ‘animal’ way. Be it yourself or your pet dog,you fight to move forward. You are a survivor,regardless. The generation you may be born in and breed from ,as we did,will continue that survival.

Life is a little different to a generation ago I will grant. Youngsters tend to live a rather *soft * and false life in the First World now,and reality tends to be on a phone these days Well maybe those who can’t make up their minds what sex or breed they are ! Of course,in the 2nd and 3rd world are different places ( always) but we are where we are. To be honest,I feel that our society has only gotten soft in this last forty years or so .Probably less.I don’t know about yourselves,but I was brought up in a tough place,as did a good proportion of my childhood friends. It’s only now we live a rather soft life,but prior to that life was tough ,even though then we weren’t turning to *the end of the world* perhaps when there was war or threat of it. This is a good place to live in the UK.

Thirty or so years ago when I was aware that I was a “survivalist “ it was all about “equipment “ and living in the woods etc. With young daughters that soon changed! Sure,we’ve always had ‘grab bags’ but basically now one is in case of the idiot next door who could cause fire,and my permanent hospital bag in the car and ready to go.

At our age,health too, if there were an issue ( fire,flood,house damage) then it’s covered by insurance to be frank. We pay properly for that too,as it’s a big deal when stuff happens. It would not be a case of running up to the woods and swing in a tree to sleep! Even if we end up as a country in battle in another country,we will still live where we do now, rather than ‘in the woods’.Back in the 1940’s with constant bombing,we STILL lived in pretty much the same place,until such a point damage occurred. Sure,stuff may be short ( as in COVID) ,but we cope. Stuff is dear now,just like the rest of the world- we are not unique. We should simply deal with it,we are not in major danger,although seeing some reactions one might think so!

Sure,we personally have back up lighting,heating,cooking and even back up water. We’ve had local flooding and shortages,and great,it was ( quietly) dealt with in our home. . For instance the electricity was cut off which meant nobody like us ,totally electric,had power. Neither did those with gas central heating! But we have back up in the form of portable gas. I don’t know about neighbours,but we were and are covered. Quietly. I can remember in Winter a couple of neighbours chewing about several who were burning coal,because they had no back up!

To me that’s the way forward. Modern living but with back up and no obvious signs to others.

[Frnc]

Yes the roads are likely to get gridlocked. Can you carry your gear if necessary? Making an early decision is a tricky one, but if the authorities say you must evacuate, it's made for you.

I can't carry the gear far at all; for me it would have to be totally desperate to bug out on foot at my age. I would only last a day or two before things got really bad, depending on the weather and time of year even though the gear is carefully chosen. I live in a semi - urban (or semi - rural) environment but have nowhere "comfortable" to bug out to.

Well, personally I would work on the worst case scenario, that you need to get somewhere else, or get from somewhere else to your home, and you have no vehicle, or can't use it, there is no public transport. So it's several days walk. Personally, I can't walk far, so I favour a bicycle. My bike can carry four panniers. Also, in a long term bug in, this would be a way to go out scavenging/foraging/fishing. This might conflict slightly with the idea of travelling in a group, but not completely. I don't have family in the area anyway.
You could try to reduce the weight and bulk of your gear. You can do this gradually, either by replacing things with lighter versions, or multi-purpose items, or by deciding they aren't crucial.
Survival rule of 3s says keeping warm and dry is your top priority. A light weight poncho can be got cheaply, that keeps you dry and covers a medium sized rucksack. It could even form a tarp shelter. I have one that has grommets at the corners. I have a ground sheet that weighs about 40g. It is very thin but very tough plastic. Cost next to nothing. My sleeping bag only comes up to my waist. So it is half the weight, or less. My insulated jacket and hat would do for the top half. My air bed is a short, shoulders to knees, weighs even less than my foam mat, half the weight in fact. My stove and gas canister both fit inside a 1.1 litre pot.
You don't need to carry a lot of water if you have a filter and puri tabs. Collapsible bottles like Platypus are light.
Food is obviously important. I have some life boat rations and some backpacking type meals. I only have enough gas for a few meals. If I run out I can use a chain attached to three sticks to hang the pot over a fire. Chain is titanium and has a plate with 3 holes for sticks. Pot has hanging loop. Alternatively you could look for bricks or large stones, or maybe logs, to balance a pot on, but that's a lot of faff, and easier said than done.

[PPrep]

Well, personally I would work on the worst case scenario, that you need to get somewhere else, or get from somewhere else to your home, and you have no vehicle, or can't use it, there is no public transport. So it's several days walk. Personally, I can't walk far, so I favour a bicycle. My bike can carry four panniers. Also, in a long term bug in, this would be a way to go out scavenging/foraging/fishing. This might conflict slightly with the idea of travelling in a group, but not completely. I don't have family in the area anyway.
You could try to reduce the weight and bulk of your gear. You can do this gradually, either by replacing things with lighter versions, or multi-purpose items, or by deciding they aren't crucial.

I've given much thought to survivalism, on and off, over the years. If I was young and fit, I would take an approach similar to your own or even more rigorous. In my youf, I did some adventure stuff and enjoyed the challenges. However, I have to work with what I've got, or rather haven't got. The idea of experiencing thirst, starvation, exposure, possible nasty infection or human attack and dying slowly over a period of weeks does not appeal.

I have actually considered an ebike well equipped with panniers, etc. These can go places motor vehicles can't and are relatively silent. Mind you, you're stuck when the battery (ies) run out.

Foraging is all well and good, and I've tried this. Depending where you live, there's a window of a few weeks in spring when there are plenty of greens such as bramble, dandelion (very bitter), jack-in-the-hedge and hawthorn leaves. Young fireweed (rose bay willowherb) shoots are edible and are locally common. The next window is in late summer and autumn when fruits appear. Beware the things (seeds?) inside rose-hip berries that make your throat itch! As for fishing, it's challenging enough to catch them with a rod and reel. Catching animals with traps, etc, needs a high level of skill. There's talk of slugs, but these are truly horrible.

I have a portable ceramic water filter/purifier, although its best to boil or use chlorine tablets in conjunction with these. I've discovered that if water is muddy, its best left for a few hours in a bottle for the sediment to disperse, then decant the clearer water. Or a filtration bag could be used.

Lighting a campfire can draw attention as smoke travels great distances.

So, there's a lot to consider.

[grenfell]

Forum quirk I suppose but in some respects it made me smile.
When I looked this thread sits right next to the nuclear war thread and couldn't help but see the irony in the almost polar opposites of answers. On this thread the talk is all about planning , bugging out , and surviving but on the nuclear thread there are a lot of "let me die" answers.
I'm not trying to be critical , I can understand both sides and answers and there aren't really any wrong answers , it's just the juxtaposition of the threads that made me smile...

[GeraldTheBonzai]

I would suggest that for most people in the UK, the best you could achieve is Prepper-lite. The option to bug out is not really an option. Certainly down here on South Coast, there is nowhere to bug out too - 10 miles outside of anywhere is pretty much 5 miles into somewhere else, if you get what I mean.

We work on the basis of being able to look after ourselves, in the case of things like power outages, flooding, supply chain disruptions etc. Covid was a good test, and highlighted a few things we needed to do better. Anything worse than that, like a war, well just going to have to hope for the best.

[Peter]

I would suggest that for most people in the UK, the best you could achieve is Prepper-lite. The option to bug out is not really an option. Certainly down here on South Coast, there is nowhere to bug out too - 10 miles outside of anywhere is pretty much 5 miles into somewhere else, if you get what I mean.

We work on the basis of being able to look after ourselves, in the case of things like power outages, flooding, supply chain disruptions etc. Covid was a good test, and highlighted a few things we needed to do better. Anything worse than that, like a war, well just going to have to hope for the best.

I would agree with you Gerald, look after your family as best as you can, no one else will.

In the late 1970s, with a young family, the cold war, job uncertainty, we started buying a little extra food as we could afford it, with very active kids we had a good first aid kit, holidays were camping.......things grew from there.

That’s how we started prepping and we didn’t know it was......we just thought it common sense.

[grenfell]

In the late 1970s, with a young family, the cold war, job uncertainty, we started buying a little extra food as we could afford it, with very active kids we had a good first aid kit, holidays were camping.......things grew from there.

That’s how we started prepping and we didn’t know it was......we just thought it common sense.

Certainly very relatable , that's pretty much how I grew up. Mother was always keen to keep the pantry and freezer full , and stocks of bed linen , soap and of course candles for the power cuts. Father grew vegetables , sourced wood for the fire and so on. Both were careful with what money they had. As you say it wasn't known as prepping just common sense , common sense born out of necessity. I have wondered about the survivalist movement if we can call it that , I've wondered if there is an element of fantasy rather than necessity. The Hollywood fantasy of roaming a desolate landscape untouched by plague or whatever happily blowing the heads off zombies , a glorified game if you like. Or at least that's the impression I get especially from our cousins across the pond...
Actually mentioning zombies and referring back to a comment from jansman about younger generations being "softer" my daughter said something a little while ago. . She's an apprentice at a finance company and also via that doing a degree at uni but she said to me that while it's a decent well paid job at the moment if there's a zombie apocalypse it won't have taught her much to deal with that , algorithms , emails and investment opportunities won't be in heavy demand...
Just to say that while the younger generation can be said to have an easier life I wouldn't be at all surprised if by some miracle I could speak to my great grandparents they'd be saying just how easy my growing up in the 70's were...

[PPrep]

I would suggest that for most people in the UK, the best you could achieve is Prepper-lite. The option to bug out is not really an option. Certainly down here on South Coast, there is nowhere to bug out too - 10 miles outside of anywhere is pretty much 5 miles into somewhere else, if you get what I mean.

We work on the basis of being able to look after ourselves, in the case of things like power outages, flooding, supply chain disruptions etc. Covid was a good test, and highlighted a few things we needed to do better. Anything worse than that, like a war, well just going to have to hope for the best.

I would agree with you Gerald, look after your family as best as you can, no one else will.

In the late 1970s, with a young family, the cold war, job uncertainty, we started buying a little extra food as we could afford it, with very active kids we had a good first aid kit, holidays were camping.......things grew from there.

That’s how we started prepping and we didn’t know it was......we just thought it common sense.

I think this sums it all up. All the same, best of luck to the more adventurous.