What i am prepping for and why.

[jansman]

Bugging out has been somewhat convoluted these past few years.Back in the day,it was the case that you left your primary residence,with a bug out kit.This was meant to sustain you until you reached your ' bug out location'.
This would be a safe place,with pre stocked supplies,water source,heating and so forth.In short,a second home.

Not a vague hole in the ground,set in a piece of woodland that someone else owns!Why is running to the woods seen as a safe bet? In January?!!!!

Fishing today,I saw a chap who was poorly dressed,in a biting wind,get colder and colder.The anglers around him were dressed in full Winter gear, myself included.He had a smashing BMW SUV,all the kit,and dressed like he was going down the pub! Ripped jeans and trainers FFS!

Long story short,he started going hypothermic. I spotted it after about two hours,and told his mate to get him in the car and get the heater on- pronto!
He was OK in the end.

So you take your wife and child to a place unknown in a crisis with only the gear on your back.You don't know exactly where you will shelter.You get soaked finding that place.And it is tonight.You have no supplies other than those on your back,and it has dropped to minus 3.No dry firewood( and a fire takes a LOT of wood),and your child is going hypothermic,as you cannot get dry and warm.

Great plan that.

[Yorkshire Andy]

We dealt with the stepson on remembrance day when he collapsed at the cenotaph.. Young ones / bean poles Are VERY SUSCEPTIBLE to the cold and wet even when kitted for the conditions...

I was pissed at the leader who went against commonsense and took his berret off

As soon as I got to him ( had gone up the road to photograph them marching)

Gave him my mucky work thermal hat / down jacket and got him on his feet moving about.. wasvabout to Copenhagen the oven ready foil blanket but we bundled him into a warm car (my dad dropped everything to go get it) and got some hot chocolate down his neck in a warm living room he soon came back round problem is the embarrassment made him go into his shell which can be hard to assess their well being as they try to cover it up / shut the world out

[born prepper]

Staying at home would be safer in my opinion. Unless you house is at immediate threat of danger that is. Why leave the place you know well to rough it in the woods?

Cheers
Adam

[Briggs 2.0]

I live in the country and we have a rifle. We would struggle to feed many living off the land here. There are few, VERY few game birds about, even the rabbit population is sparce. There is the odd roe deer, it ate my winter broccoli and strawberry plants this year But given that we are not the only ones living in this area we would have to be very lucky to be the ones to get it as several other people would no doubt be after it too.

I can understand why bugging out to the country appeals to so many but in reality there are far fewer resources to feed a large number of people than you might think. Far better I feel to aim at the self-sufficent life style and use the foraging/hunting as an extra.

I have noticed the same. We are close to a local shoot and get the odd bird on our spot which goes into the pot, but this season there's been not much about at all. It's not like it's been a hard winter nor do I suspect the landed gentry have got better shots this year. No deer, red or roe about. If we were living of the land through this period we'd be living off rats.

[Briggs 2.0]

I started to reply to the OP's original post but decided to delete it because it was the usual response along the lines of 'it's your plan, but are you sure.' However the OP did get me thinking. I live very rural, on moorland and spend a lot of time in woodlands and open country so it's fair to say, I live in the same sort of area as the OP is planning to head to. It's not easy living out here and I'm not so sure how an outsider, with no local knowledge would survive but here's the thing that got me thinking; at some point, under his SHTF scenario, the rural dwellers may have to go into an urban area for supplies. For a country lad like me, that's a daunting thought. So maybe we should spin this thread around for a change and have a chat about going into urban areas after the likes of the OP have bugged out and encountered their own fate. What are you buggers-in going to do when the country boys come knocking?

No threat intended, I'm hoping to keep the thread going from a different perspective, just for a bit of fun....

[Deeps]

I would imagine the biggest problem come some sort of disaster would be the amount of dead bodies in the built up areas. Apart from the fact it wouldn't be 'purty' it would smell and scenario dependent (ie assuming we still have cities) they'd be full of plague. While you yokels are getting your fill of our city slicking plague we'll be raiding your veggie plots and gun lockers.

[grenfell]

That's an interesting idea and I have thought along similar lines before. That's probably because in pretty much every apocalyptic film or tv programme they seem to head to built up areas with an eye on scavenging. In many respects it would seem a decent idea , not necessarily for things like food but a city is in effect a treasure house of building materials and many other items. However , I've never really given it a huge amount of thought simply because I don't think such a scenario is that likely. I can't help thinking the biggest flaw in the idea of bugging out or scavenging or hunkering down somewhere is the numbers of people either alive or dead. Any event that leaves cities as empty as the films show is going to leave mountains of bodies lying around happily decomposing and polluting water courses etc.
I'm more of a slow crash believer which doesn't see any huge die off in a short space of time. That should mean we could have small or smallish communities that work together and that cooperation should provide a defence against roving bands.

[grenfell]

Ah really must type faster as I see Deeps has beaten me to it with the mounds of dead bodies thing. Great minds and all that or is it...

[Briggs 2.0]

Deeps - yes, that's it. in the OP's scenario, I think the biggest fight going back to urban areas would be fighting infection. Time to check the filters on the GSR, perhaps.

Grenfell - I'm with you on the slow decline but I do think as more and more get infected and ill, the death rate will escalate. (I'm only playing along with the reverse of the OPs' scenario, I don't really think along these lines). What happens when Mrs OP says enough's enough, I'm going back to my mum's? Or the OP's son gets ill and needs anti-biotics, will there be a reverse exodus? It may not be all one-way traffic to the wonders of the countryside!

Let's just say the OP's scenario has manifested and my rural community has been busy piling up the dead and those mortally trampled by angry cows with .177 pellet-rash and the local buzzards just can't eat anymore, then at some point we rural chaps are going to run out of stuff. What would that be, I wonder? Disinfectant? I'm wondering it will be that we run out of that would make us venture to where there are pavements.

I think I've stumbled upon the reverse-exodus-paradox.

[Plymtom]

I think I've stumbled upon the reverse-exodus-paradox.

When we start talking worst case it really does hit home just how bad things could get, and how it could all too easily be the exact opposite of what we initially imagine, for us the getting home if things ever go south whilst we are out, in particular if they do so when we have gone in the car burdened down with toys we would then have to get back with even if the car couldn't.

As to the hoards of rural invaders or returning townies, I think either way by that point as you say there would be considerable health hazards from bodies yes but also failed sanitation and no waste collections, our own dependence on the NHS means we would be in the proverbial PDQ in any case, on the whole tough I think I'd rather be rural like yourself, there really is something attractive about your own little patch of woodland as an escape from the world as it is these days, not so much because TS may HTF but simply to separate from the madness which is pretty constant