The Prepper Thread

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Kiroy

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Fundamental problem with all prepping imo unless you truly live out in the absolute middle of nowhere.

If youre prepping to get through a few weeks of societal disruption(mainly natural disasters), it makes perfect sense.

If youre prepping to make it through the complete break down of society, anything beyond a go bag and some food and water is pointless. You arent going to be taking advantage of your sweet solar setup cooking all that rice you had stored in mylar bags. Raiders are because youll either be dead or long gone.

Ya, i'd say it's doable though, and many people will do it. You just need to have a defensible location and at the very least, three families to have a proper 24/7 watch while also being able to get work done. Five + families would be much better. Even then, you have to hope the populace gets back towards civilized society within a certain time frame (probably a year?). If not you'll end up with roving bands of enough people to overwhelm almost any defensive position.
 
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LachiusTZ

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No way. The less availability of primary resources (food water medicine) the higher chance of “raiders”.

There will be "food".

Gruel for you, steak and potatoes for me.

Biden has stated several times, massive lockdown.

Last time, your couldn't get shit paper and bread for a month? And that was not a national lockdown.

Nobody will starve, but there is a very real chance the selection is going to get drastically reduced.
 

Kiroy

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There will be "food".

Gruel for you, steak and potatoes for me.

Biden has stated several times, massive lockdown.

Last time, your couldn't get shit paper and bread for a month? And that was not a national lockdown.

Nobody will starve, but there is a very real chance the selection is going to get drastically reduced.

we were talking about near total collapse situations
 

Lenardo

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HEH i am supplied tp wise,
family of 5 -3 male 2 female, i think i have enough tp on hand to last ~90 days.
i have 4 12 packs of charmin the quad roll? pack, i forget which
80 rolls of 1000sheet single ply(one case) of the amazon brand. and 2 cases of the industrial single ply mega rolls that my wife bought (you know the giant rolls that go in stadiums.....

food wise, we could last ~2 months probably with the food we have on hand if need be.
i do need to pick up some more jerky and landjaeger (think slim jims but WAY better) though, i have eaten most of it....
the landjaeger i get here:

 
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Bandwagon

Kolohe
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I still have hundreds of pounds of beans & rice. All I need is Tabasco and print versions of Hustler
 
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Gravel

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There will be "food".

Gruel for you, steak and potatoes for me.

Biden has stated several times, massive lockdown.

Last time, your couldn't get shit paper and bread for a month? And that was not a national lockdown.

Nobody will starve, but there is a very real chance the selection is going to get drastically reduced.
Speaking of, my wife went to the grocery store here in CA and said everything seemed out of stock.

Her family in Kentucky said the same thing about a trip to Sam's.

Is there some kind of supply chain disruption right now that no one is talking about?
 

LachiusTZ

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Speaking of, my wife went to the grocery store here in CA and said everything seemed out of stock.

Her family in Kentucky said the same thing about a trip to Sam's.

Is there some kind of supply chain disruption right now that no one is talking about?

Not sure if you heard, but, Biden is about to be PotUS
 
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Cutlery

Kill All the White People
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Fundamental problem with all prepping imo unless you truly live out in the absolute middle of nowhere.

If youre prepping to get through a few weeks of societal disruption(mainly natural disasters), it makes perfect sense.

If youre prepping to make it through the complete break down of society, anything beyond a go bag and some food and water is pointless. You arent going to be taking advantage of your sweet solar setup cooking all that rice you had stored in mylar bags. Raiders are because youll either be dead or long gone.

Next thing on the list for me was to buy a slot of land in the north with my sister. Great grandparents farmed there in the early 1900's, so should still be doable, and there's a pretty massive whitetail herd there. There's still people, but it's people per 40 acres, instead of people per city block. Slap a couple of cabins on the land back out aways from the road, hopefully have a place to hunker down. Endless timber for warmth, water table is pretty reasonable.

Unfortunately, I'm starting to wonder if we're running outta time for that plan.
 
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Bandwagon

Kolohe
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Unfortunately, I'm starting to wonder if we're running outta time for that plan.
Nah, it's the perfect time. Take out a huge loan that you have no intention of fully repaying. Maybe you'll get 80 acres for ~2 years worth of mortgage payments.
 
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Cutlery

Kill All the White People
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Nah, it's the perfect time. Take out a huge loan that you have no intention of fully repaying. Maybe you'll get 80 acres for ~2 years worth of mortgage payments.

Won't even be that much of an investment. Land in the north is close to 1k/acre in a lot of areas. We were literally spitballing having a gigantic dog park/shooting range (depending on the weekend) for literally a couple hundred bucks a month.

I'm just wondering if we have time to set everything up before everything goes to shit. The timeline of the world has been accelerated quite a bit lately.
 
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Bandwagon

Kolohe
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Won't even be that much of an investment. Land in the north is close to 1k/acre in a lot of areas. We were literally spitballing having a gigantic dog park/shooting range (depending on the weekend) for literally a couple hundred bucks a month.

I'm just wondering if we have time to set everything up before everything goes to shit. The timeline of the world has been accelerated quite a bit lately.
If I was single with no kids, I'd already be packing a U-Haul and aiming for the least populated areas of the reddest states, with the warmer ones getting higher priority.

Now that I actually know how to make maps and parse data like that (and census data), I'm a little bummed that I don't have the freedom to pick up and move like I did my whole adult life. I was just playing with that a few weeks ago.
 
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Cutlery

Kill All the White People
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Yeah, unfortunately I have kids...and joint custody of the youngest, so it's gonna need to be a societal collapse before I can bug out. Hunkering here for now, with enough supplies to wait out a little bit at least.
 
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B_Mizzle

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Yeah, unfortunately I have kids...and joint custody of the youngest, so it's gonna need to be a societal collapse before I can bug out. Hunkering here for now, with enough supplies to wait out a little bit at least.

Same situation hamstring myself by getting married/divorced with kids, now I'm stuck in the desert for about 10 more years. Could bug out if there is a major disruption though.
 

Big Phoenix

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Even then, you have to hope the populace gets back towards civilized society within a certain time frame (probably a year?).
Yup. Unless the breakdown is only temporary eventually your oasis will fall. Why I dont think too much into long term, as its much more likely you will be forced to leave your home or just be killed.

I keep enough canned/ready to eat food on hand to last me a minimum of two weeks(getting this back up to a month) and enough water to last a month. If power isnt an issue then I have enough food to last probably close to two months before id need to get more. I need to get another case of MREs, those are great because just 1 is good enough to keep you alive and theyre very portable so if you need to get up and go you have everything you need for a meal aside from water.

For general food preparedness, id make sure to have a 25lb bag of rice on hand. Doesn't get much better for price to calories and ease of cooking for rice. Also incredibly versatile as it compliments so many other things. My staple is 1-3 cups of rice + can of corned beef hash, very simple and easy to prepare meal that decent tasting and can feed many cheaply. Ramen is another great option in terms of price to calories. Of course that assumes you have power, or the ability to boil water.

Another thing to consider is sanitation. If theres no power or running water you arent gonna be able to really clean any dishes so good to have a package or two of disposable plates and forks/spoons.

As for water, definitely go with cases of 16oz bottles.
 
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Haus

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Speaking of, my wife went to the grocery store here in CA and said everything seemed out of stock.

Her family in Kentucky said the same thing about a trip to Sam's.

Is there some kind of supply chain disruption right now that no one is talking about?

The closer you are to the coasts the worse things will get faster. Things are made in middle America and shipped East/West. Meaning middle America tends to get stocked first and restocked more easily.
 
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BrutulTM

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That's 100% right. I'm still kicking around ideas, bugging out to the northwest in a trailer with all the stuff prepped seems like a good plan. Theres huge amounts of water and if someone has seeds, growbags, self sufficient farming should be pretty easy. Plus trailer is good for cheap vacationing. I've thought about just getting some land out in the desert and setting it up but it seems like being mobile with a big truck and a trailer is a better more flexible plan.


If you're interested, here's the well registry for Arizona. You can look in an area you're interested in and get an idea what the well depth tends to be by looking at other wells. This lists wells of all types so ignore anything that says irrigation, monitoring, etc. Wells that say they are for stock or domestic and have 4-6" casings will be similar to what you would need. Doesn't look like there's a lot of 30 foot deep wells in AZ unfortunately. Don't worry about GPM. Even 2 or 3 is plenty to run a house off of.

Just saw a YouTube video of a guy who said he spent $9000 on two dry holes in the Flagstaff area. As someone who's planning to drill 4 new wells in the next few years I don't like hearing stories like that.
 
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Phazael

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Just chiming in on the whole long term reality thing. Unless you live out in the sticks (and no one knows about your stockpile), any major prepping is just hording shit for other people to come take from you. Being prepared for a 1-2 month societal disruption is a good idea. You can ride that sort of period out with some dry goods, water, bullets, and common sense preparations. Anything lasting longer than that (or even a week or two in some areas) and people will get to you and take what you have. A locked vault in your basement (assuming no one plugs the air holes) is so over the top and ridiculous its more economical (and safer) to have a shit shack somewhere in the woods and a bugout bag to get to it.

I mean look at what people did during Catrina in even the burbs around New Orleans. People turn into savages the moment food and water starts being scarce, particularly the kind of people who are too short sighted to have a bug out plan. Plus thanks to the color war being pimped, you can bet the murdering will fall along racial lines and packs of wild wakandans will be at the forefront of the pillaging. That Catrina shit happened in under a week. Imagine a month with no clear end in sight or promise of federal aid.

Having said all that, I do practice what I preach on this front. I have enough dry goods and water to hold out about six weeks, with the idea we cook up the perishables on the grill day one if shit goes bad. I have several firearms and a decent supply of ammo to at least make the rape gangs work for it. Our neighbors and us have a plan in place for covering each other and when its time to bug out. We have bug out bags (loaded cases really) ready to toss in our truck if we have to make a run for it. We live on the outskirts of a Texas city, so plenty of ways out (and a preplanned place to go) if it comes to it. But I also have to be realistic in that we are old fat fucks and not long for this world in societal collapse, so the two bullet plan (one for her one for me) is always on the table if things get that bad. I figure if its not a get out immediately situation, I am probably just going to make an effort for the first pack of savages work for what I have. But make no mistake a pack of feral assholes, especially if they nabbed some guns, is not something you can defend your home from realistically.

The riots have taught us all that we are already on our own and cannot count on proper authorities to defend ourselves. Anyone taking serious steps to be ready for a partial or full collapse of society needs to keep in mind we are already working without a net. So, bare minimum, learn how to hunt and have a bugout bag. And trust no one.
 
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Aychamo BanBan

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Just chiming in on the whole long term reality thing. Unless you live out in the sticks (and no one knows about your stockpile), any major prepping is just hording shit for other people to come take from you. Being prepared for a 1-2 month societal disruption is a good idea. You can ride that sort of period out with some dry goods, water, bullets, and common sense preparations. Anything lasting longer than that (or even a week or two in some areas) and people will get to you and take what you have. A locked vault in your basement (assuming no one plugs the air holes) is so over the top and ridiculous its more economical (and safer) to have a shit shack somewhere in the woods and a bugout bag to get to it.

I mean look at what people did during Catrina in even the burbs around New Orleans. People turn into savages the moment food and water starts being scarce, particularly the kind of people who are too short sighted to have a bug out plan. Plus thanks to the color war being pimped, you can bet the murdering will fall along racial lines and packs of wild wakandans will be at the forefront of the pillaging. That Catrina shit happened in under a week. Imagine a month with no clear end in sight or promise of federal aid.

Having said all that, I do practice what I preach on this front. I have enough dry goods and water to hold out about six weeks, with the idea we cook up the perishables on the grill day one if shit goes bad. I have several firearms and a decent supply of ammo to at least make the rape gangs work for it. Our neighbors and us have a plan in place for covering each other and when its time to bug out. We have bug out bags (loaded cases really) ready to toss in our truck if we have to make a run for it. We live on the outskirts of a Texas city, so plenty of ways out (and a preplanned place to go) if it comes to it. But I also have to be realistic in that we are old fat fucks and not long for this world in societal collapse, so the two bullet plan (one for her one for me) is always on the table if things get that bad. I figure if its not a get out immediately situation, I am probably just going to make an effort for the first pack of savages work for what I have. But make no mistake a pack of feral assholes, especially if they nabbed some guns, is not something you can defend your home from realistically.

The riots have taught us all that we are already on our own and cannot count on proper authorities to defend ourselves. Anyone taking serious steps to be ready for a partial or full collapse of society needs to keep in mind we are already working without a net. So, bare minimum, learn how to hunt and have a bugout bag. And trust no one.

One thing I learned is "home preparedness". Ie, I got caught with my pants down, no generator, no way to repair a roof, not enough extension cords to power shit when I got a shitty little generator, no window A/C unit to cool a room that can run off a small generator, no solar panel to recharge phones, really didn't have a lot of extra food, barely any water/etc store, etc, etc. It took me living through a disaster to realize how poorly I was prepared.

After that, I did all the shit. Got a legitimate 20 kW home generator, got it plumbed into the big gas, wired with a transfer switch, etc (boy they fuck you hard on installation). Company comes out every couple of months to check on it. I ran my house off this generator for three weeks, it's a beast. I now have 2x4s to anchor a tarp, multiple roofing tarps, roofing nails, nails for the 2x4s. I have gallons and gallons of water, and a huge pantry I had built just to store cans and cans of food. I have guns and ammo, but luckily in my neighborhood we are all mostly close so we were all helping each other clean up, etc, and looking after each others properties. And as the saying goes "you loot we shoot." But to be truthful guns were the least important thing during the disaster I went through. But that may be dependent on my neighborhood. I could imagine if I lived elsewhere it would be very, very different. I'm literally on the outskirts of town in an upscale neighborhood. So it's completely different than, like you said, the assholes stuck close to people who are rioting.

One other thing that got weird was gas. I had a gas vehicle at the time, and at one point you had to go pretty far (like 40 miles) to get gas, which is insane. And like gasoline generators have to be filled every 4-8 hours depending, so like everyone was running around with like 8 5-gallon containers of gas, myself included (I had these weird 14 gallon things that are used to fill boats). I got stuck in the next town and I remember panicking that my generator was going to stop and I wouldn't be able to restart it. I'm terrible with gas engines and I feel they're all shit and barely ever run.

One thing that did bother me was when the whole area is without electricity, me having that generator running was a big red flag advertising that it's running, and letting people know I'm home, etc. Just made me feel like a target. And honestly I worry about like if people wanted to, a few of them could come and just pickup my generator and walk off with it, it just sits on a blind side of my house on a concrete pad. No anchors or anything holding it down.

One thing that cracks me up is all the bug out bags people make, where they think they are going to take a $2 fishing lure kit and go live out in the woods and survive. That level of prepping is beyond retarded. Bug out bags can be legit, but until you've gone through some sort of legitimate disaster, I think a lot of it is just fantasy. I used to have one, it was so fucking heavy I could barely walk with it, and I re-evaluated it years later and threw almost all of it away. I remember one episode of "doomsday preppers" some retarded girl who lived in a big city tried walking the 2 miles to her bug out vehicle and could barely make it.

For me, the important things are someway to charge your mobile phone, copies of important documents on a usb drive, have all your credit cards, etc, on hand, a decent vehicle you can pack people and luggage in, a few clean pairs of clothes, extra gas or diesel that you can throw in your vehicle in case you have to go far before you can fill up, and then know all your surrounding areas up to about 3 hours out in all directions so you can have a place to stay, hotels, etc. The last prep is intelligence. Don't wait until the last minute to leave, and be one of those assholes that gets stuck in traffic and it takes them 10 hours to go 120 miles (this happens ALL THE TIME in those situations). If you are faced with a legitimate threat, fucking leave town early.

Other things to keep at home, a gas generator, a small window unit, stuff to repair your roof, extension cords and power blocks out the ass, a dehumidifier, some way to cook, if you have natural gas at your house but not a gas stove, or whatever, find a way to hook up like an outside burner to gas line so you can have infinite ability to cook. A solar panel if needed to charge your phone.

Ok I'm exhausted and drinking. Bye.
 
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Phazael

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Bugout bag should have ammo, a decent knife, some basic medical supplies, some dry ration food, a filter water bottle, and some hard copy references on any survival basics you do not have committed to memory. Depending on where you live, some basic weather related clothing items should probably be in there too, like gloves or a decent pair of hiking shoes. To me the idea is just to have the basic essentials in one place so you do not have to scramble packing shit other than maybe some clothing items. A spare battery to check for cell stuff periodically (those are cheap and give a lot of extra battery life) is not the worst idea, but I think its a given that cellular will be gone really quick. Consider how much that one bomb took out for ATT and that the people keeping shit going are likely going to bail themselves.
 
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